Hyderabad, September 30, 2008: The grand final of the ICL 20-20 Domestic Tournament featured the two ICL heavyweight teams’ Chennai Superstars & Chandigarh Lions battle it out at the Lahari Resorts ground in Hyderabad. In the end it was the Punjab side that emerged victorious by six wickets to pick up their maiden ICL title and in turn announcing a stark warning for all opponents at ICL Season-2, starting October 10th 2008. The chief architect of the Lions’ win was a cracking 84 run partnership for the fourth wicket between skipper Dinesh Mongia & twenty four year old all rounder Gaurav Gupta. Gaurav Gupta was declared man of the match for his unbeaten 43 runs that steered the Lions to their maiden championship victory on the ICL platform.
Earlier in the day Sathish won the toss and elected to bat wanting to take first advantage of the sporting track. A forty-nine run partnership for the first wicket powered by G Vignesh’s knock of 48 runs off 32 balls including six fours & two sixes; put the Superstars in the drivers’ seat. Vignesh’s departure in the 9th over saw the stylish south paw Hemang Badani hold center-stage powering a sparkling half century. The Superstars folded their innings at 136 /8 in their allotted 20 overs. Luv Ablish & Dinesh Mongia were the leading wicket takers picking two wickets each in their allotted 4 overs.
In reply, the Lions chase got off to a shaky start with the side reeling at 21/3 in the 6th over. However skipper Mongia had other plans and in the company of the upcoming Gaurav Gupta scripted a brilliant six wicket victory to earn the Lions their maiden ICL title.
Brief scores: Chennai Superstars 136/8 in 20 overs (Vignesh 48, Badani 51, Mongia 2/16) lost by 6 wickets to Chandigarh Lions 138/4 in 19.1 overs (Mongia 61, Gupta 43, Vignesh 2/25)