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CCL-3: Mumbai Heroes back in hunt

Salman Khan inspired hosts Mumbai Heroes proved what it is to be a well-knit unit when they warded off a strong challenge to beat two-time defending champions Chennai Rhinos in Celebrity Cricket League-3 (CCL-3) action at the impressive Dubai International Cricket Stadium late on Saturday night.

In an intriguing game, last year’s semi-finalists Heroes fought back to stop the Rhinos strong batting lineup for a deserving 19-run victory to open their CCL-3 account with two points in the eight-team league cum knockout format that ends on March 10 in Bengaluru.

Chitrangna, Jackey and Nargis flash the victory sign as the Mumbai Heroes players celebrate after taking a wicket at the Dubai International Stadium. — KT photos by Mukesh Kamal and Rahul Gajjar

Mumbai had lost their opening two rounds and badly needed Saturday nights crucial league points injection to stay in the hunt for a last four berth.

In the day’s afternoon fixture, Amma Kerala Strikers put up a CCL high 245 for the loss of just two wickets off their quota over 20 overs against Bengal Tigers for a 147-run victory cruise.

Dr Rajeev Pillay, an England educated dentist turned actor in Mollywood and his opening partner U. Rakendu Kumar (86 off 46 balls) put up a record 152-0 before Kumar was stumped.

Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi made his presence felt.

Man of the match Dr Pillai’s balanced 95 (62) contained five 6s and seven 4s while Kumar smacked two over the ropes and reached the boundary on 11 occasions for his 4s count.

In the Bengal essay, bustling allrounder G. Madan Mohan who opened the bowling for Kerala, claimed 3-22 to see the Bengal men slip to 99-9 in 20 overs. Pankaj Chandra Senan, the Kerala Strikers head coach said: “This is so important for us, not just the two points but the way our openers played with caution initially and later opened out as the wicket played easier than expected.”

A large number of fans turned up at the Dubai Sports Stadium.

Strikers team manager Edavela Babu said: “The win is a vindication of how we were handled during CCL-2 ad in our previous game against Bhojpuri Debanggs in Hyderabad when the DLS rule was applied suddenly in the rain curtailed game. The CCL which is a great concept and a boost for the film and television industry has no record of the DLS being included in the event rule book, at least in the official copies we received before the tournament.”

Mumbai Heroes did well for a 171-3 standing as Indraneil 10 (20 balls), Sunny Singh 29 (22), Raja Bhelwani 50 (36) n.o. and Man of the match Shabbir Ahluwalia 70 (39) paced their knocks without any panic button being pushed into their approach after a 102-2 off 13.5 overs placement. The final six overs produced a fruitful 69 runs for Bollywood.

Mumbai Heroes’ Shabir receiving the trophy from Salman Khan.

The class act in the Chennai challenge were the knocks of opener Vikranth 58 (45) and two-down Vishnu 56 (29).

Both batsmen, former Tamil Nadu under 16 and 19 players, looked like pinning a victory poster in their dressing room filled with brand ambassadors and female stars who must have conjured ideas of a full blown party night at the official after match function.

That was not to be as Vikranth went into a shell after entertaining the 13,000 plus crowd with stylish straight drives, wonderful cover-drives and powerful pulls. Vishnu got into the act but by then the spirited ‘Mumbaiwalas’ with on the spot bowling by Bobby Deol (0-31) whose well disguised right arm medium pacers helped cut down the chase drastically, Raja Bhelwani with his telling 3-29, Sunny Singh (1-18) and Varun Badola (1-34), cemented the point that bowling to a field can win matches no matter what the situation is.