Legends League Cricket: Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Trent Johnston help Gujarat Giants beat Southern Superstars

Vishakhapatnam: A disciplined bowling attack in the first innings and a well-made 81 of 49 balls knock by Abhisek Jhunjhunwala helped Gujarat Giants to clinch a win from Southern Superstars by 5 wickets with eight balls to spare at the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

With the win, Gujarat Giants are back on the top of the points table with seven points from five matches, followed by Manipal Tigers who have six points from four matches. Southern Superstars are placed at the fifth position with three points from five matches. This also confirms that the top four teams, Gujarat Giants, Manipal Tigers, Urbanrisers Hyderabad and India Capital have already cemented their spot in the next round of the tournament. The fixture for the qualifier 1 and eliminator will be announced after tomorrow’s last league match between Manipal Tigers and Urbanrisers Hyderabad.

After winning the toss Gujarat Giants elected to bowl first. Jesse Ryder along with Upul Tharanga opened the innings for Southern Superstars.They lost the first wicket for 18 runs when Ryder(9) was dismissed by Ishwar Chaudhary in the second over. Shreevats Goswami(24) and Upul Tharanga had a partnership of 55 runs before Goswami was dismissed in the ninth over of the innings by Monty Panesar. There was hardly any major contribution by the middle and lower order. Chaturanga de Silva(17), Rajesh Bishnoi(17), Pawan Negi(13) and Suranga Lakmal(15) chipped in with some valiant contributions towards the end of the innings and helped Southern Superstars to post a respectable total of 159/8 at the end of 20th over.

For Gujarat Giants, Trent Johnston(3/30) and Monty Panesar(2/23) were the pick of the bowlers. Ishwar Chaudhary, Sarabjit Ladda and Seekkuge Prasanna also made some valuable contributions by picking one wicket each.

While chasing a target of 160, Gujarat Giants faced a huge setback in the very first over as Dhruv Ravel was dismissed by Abdur Razzak without opening his account. Abhisek Jhunjhunwala(81) along with Kevin O Brien(29) put on a partnership of 51 runs before Brien was dismissed by Suranga Lakmal in the fifth over. Richard Levi(1) also didn’t last long on the pitch. Jhunjhunwala held the innings from one end while Chirag Khurana(22) and Elton Chigumbura(21) played important knocks that helped Gujarat Giants to win the match by 5 wickets with eight balls to spare. Seekkuge Prasanna was the other batsman who got dismissed without opening his account.

For Southern Superstars, Hamid Hassan picked two wickets while Abdur Razzak, Suranga Lakmal, Chaturanga de Silva picked one wicket each.