Royal Bengal Tigers start with a win, upset Hyderabad Heroes in their opening tie.

The second game of the ICL 20-20 Domestic Tournament was played at the Lahari Resort, Hyderabad featuring the home team, Hyderabad Heroes, against a new look Royal Bengal Tigers. The Royal Bengal Tigers hit the right notes in their maiden game, recording a 42-run win. The Tigers put up a clinical performance with the bowlers backing the contribution of their middle order batsmen to fold the Heroes’ innings for 115 after setting a competitive 157.

Taking a cue from the first game that was played between Chennai Superstars and Mumbai Champs, the Hyderabad Heroes too, elected to field after winning the toss in order to extract some early juice. The Heroes’ got early breakthroughs dismissing opener Zaidi (6) and the highly talented Jhunjhunwala (1) inside the first five overs.

With two wickets down and the run-rate far below from being convincing, Bengal’s skipper Dasgupta and the experienced Rohan Gavaskar showed maturity as expected and steadily built a partnership. Deep Dasgupta departed in the ninth over for 20 and Gavaskar carried on with Rajiv Kumar (15) and SG Das (31). A late cameo by MS Diwakar helped Tigers cross 150. The right-hander changed the course quickly blasting 33 from just 18 balls with 1 four and three sixes before getting out on the penultimate ball to PK Reddy. The new ball bowlers for Hyderabad shared five wickets between them with Sahabuddin claiming 3-31 and Reddy taking 2-25.

The Hyderabad Heroes launched their chase well with both the openers getting good starts. However, Shahank Nag was the first one to depart off Eklak Ahmid’s bowling for 19. Ibrahim Khaleel than had a steady partnership with Ambati Rayudu before a run out by agile Jhunjhunwala brought an unexpected end to Rayudu’s (14) campaign. The picture started to look bleak as the Heroes kept losing wickets in quick succession. Unlike the Tigers, the home team’s middle order failed and six of their batsmen got out in single figures. PL Das picked two wickets in the final over to end Hyderabad Heroes’ campaign for 115. Eklak Amid bagged three wickets from four overs, while Ahmed and Das took two wickets apiece.