Kanojjiya’s valiant fifty in vain as Chennai Singams go down to Majhi Mumbai in ISPL semi-final
New Delhi, 15th March 2024: Chennai Singams’ campaign in the Indian Street Premier League (ISPL) T10 tournament came to an end in the semi-final, as they went down to Majhi Mumbai by 58 runs at the Dadoji Kondadev Stadium here on Thursday. Chasing a stiff target of 146, Chennai could not build momentum in their chase and managed to score 87 in reply.
Strong start
Chennai began the semi-final on a high, reducing Mumbai to 13 for 3 in the third over after being asked to bowl. V Vignesh and Rajdeep Jadeja struck in their opening overs, and in the third, Vignesh ran out Vijay Pawle to leave Mumbai in some trouble.
However, Mumbai revived their innings with an 88-run partnership in just 27 deliveries between Abhishek Dalhor (62 off 23) and opener Ajaz Qureshi (33 off 17).
50-50 challenge
One of the unique aspects of the ISPL is the 50-50 challenge. A batting team sets themselves a target of a minimum of 16 runs and chooses who should bowl from the opposition team. If the batting team achieves or exceeds the target, 50 per cent more runs are added. For example, if a team scores 20 runs, they will get 30 runs for that over and if they score 10 runs, they will get only five runs.
In the Challenge Over, Vishwanath Jadhav ended up conceding 26 runs, with Dalhor striking two sixes and a nine, awarded when the ball lands in the stands. As a result, Mumbai added 39 to their total.
Towards the end of the Mumbai innings, Krushna Pawar scored an unbeaten 23 off 12, taking the side’s total close to 150. For Chennai, Dilip Binjwa was the most expensive bowler, going for 48 from his two overs, while Jadhav went for 40.
Kanojjiya’s fighting knock
In the chase, Chennai opener Sanjay Kanojjiya produced a magnificent knock of 60 off 26, striking six sixes and three fours. However, the rest of the line-up could not fire, with Chennai losing the big wickets of Ketan Mhatre (14 off 9) and Bablu Patil (2 off 3) cheaply. Despite Kanojjiya holding up one end solidly, Chennai kept losing wickets at regular intervals at the other end faced with the steep asking-rate.
BRIEF SCORES: Majhi Mumbai 145-6 in 10 overs (Abhishek Dalhor 62, Ajaz Qureshi 33; Rajdeep Jadeja 1-10, V Vignesh 1-11) beat Chennai Singams 87 in 9.4 overs (Sanjay Kanojjiya 60; Devid Gogoi 4-8, Bashrat Wani 2-17, Vijay Pawle 2-20) by 58 runs