Report

Chennai Superstars, the winners of the first two ICL tournaments, were knocked by the Hyderabad Heroes in a thrilling contest at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad.

Chasing 148, the Superstars were tottering at 58 for 5, but a rearguard action led by Hemang Badani brought them on the verge of victory; the Heroes, however, held their nerve to reach the final with a four-run win.

After winning the toss, WAPDA decided to field and their opening bowlers struck thrice to leave KRL struggling at 48 for 3. Azhar Ali and Bazid Khan led the recovery during their 117-run stand for the fourth wicket. Azhar scored a run-a-ball 88 while Bazid supported him with 51. Ali Khan made a quickfire 30 off 18, but three run-outs meant KRL were bowled out for 250 in 46.5 overs. For WAPDA, Azharullah took 3 for 35 off his nine overs; his new-ball partner Sarfraz Ahmed took 2 for 30.

The day's other quarter-final also saw a captain's century set up a win. Bengal cruised to a 48-run triumph over Delhi on the back of a commanding batting performance, led by captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla's 95-ball 124 in Visakhapatnam. Bengal got off to a good start as their openers forged a 74-run stand but stumbled as three wickets fell for the addition of five runs. They got back on track thanks to an express 120-run partnership between Shukla and Anustup Majumdar, who contributed less than a third of the runs in the stand. Debabrata Das chipped in with a quick 40 as Bengal finished on 295. Delhi's batsmen had to score briskly to chase down the big target and perished in the attempt. Though they reached 139 by the 25th over, they had lost five wickets and despite Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Virat Kohli's efforts, they were bowled out for 247.

Sewnarine Chattergoon and Leon Johnson scored 98 and 80 respectively in a 183-run second-wicket stand before Guyana's match against Windward Islands in Providence petered out into a draw. Windward Islands, on the basis of taking the first-innings lead, pipped Guyana by a solitary point to finish fifth in the final team standings for the 2007-08 Carib Beer Cup.

Resuming on Guyana's overnight score of 29 for 1, Chattergoon and Johnson scored the 42 runs required to erase Windwards' lead as they put on 75 runs in the morning session. Chattergoon, meanwhile, brought up his fifty off 107 balls. Johnson joined Chattergoon in making a half-century during the post-lunch session, where only 56 runs were added.

Chattergoon fell two runs short of his century, and Johnson followed him to the pavilion after he was bowled by Mervyn Matthew. Guyana lost two more wickets before the game was called off, with Matthew finishing with 3 for 39.

Canterbury were pleased with the rain in Wellington as they conceded first-innings points in their last preliminary match against Otago in Dunedin. They struggled against the all-round efforts of Warren McSkimming, who collected 5 for 56 as Canterbury stumbled to 247 having been sent in. McSkimming then helped rescued Otago from a precarious 134 for 6, scoring 71 and putting together valuable partnerships with Derek de Boorder and Bradley Scott to secure the lead. Todd Astle made an unbeaten 79 in Canterbury's second-innings 215 for 3 as the match petered out to a draw.

At McLean Park, the defending champions Northern Districts managed to avoid finishing on the bottom despite giving up first-innings points to Central Districts, who were left propping up the table. Brent Arnel finished with ten wickets for the match, his first such haul in first-class cricket, but the star was Ross Taylor. His 152 from 111 balls - he reached triple-figures from 85 - brightened up a game that was always heading for a draw. Taylor's effort came as Central Districts piled on 392 for 9 in their second innings, having scored 390 in the first, when Peter Ingram made 112. Arnel grabbed 6 for 82 in the first innings and four in the second, however his batting colleagues could not quite push in front of Central Districts and finished their only innings at 365, led by Daniel Flynn's 109. Arnel finished the preliminary rounds as the competition's leading wicket taker, with 33 at 20.93.

Abdul Razzaq turned in a superb all-round performance as the Hyderabad Heroes edged out the Mumbai Champs by seven runs to finish the league phase in second spot. Razzaq blasted a 57-ball 78 to lift the Heroes to 176 before taking three wickets, including two in the final over, to shut out the Champs.

Despite Raviraj Patil's blitz (51 off 27), the Heroes looked in control of the match when the Champs needed 48 runs off the last three overs. However 20 runs were plundered off the 18th over, bowled by Alfred Absolem, and the equation was soon reduced to a more manageable 21 off 9. After Johan van der Wath was bowled off he last ball of the penultimate over, Razzaq ensured the victory by removing Robin Morris, who had fought valiantly for his 56, and Shridhar Iyer off successive balls in the final over.

NBP, after being asked to bat first, were powered by Kamran Akmal's 118 and Naumanullah's 66. The pair added 190 for the third wicket before Yasir Arafat took 5 for 42 to bowl them out just before the 50 overs. Akmal's knock included 11 fours and three sixes while Naumanullah hit seven fours in his 87-ball knock. Saeed Anwar Jnr and Ali Naqvi led the chase with half-centuries and KRL progressed well thanks to their stand of 131 for the second wicket. However, the middle order succumbed to Qaier Abbas' left-arm spin and Akmal made a strong impact behind the stumps as well by claiming five victims, which included four stumpings. Khan revived the chase from 178 for 5 and smashed five sixes in his knock but his efforts weren't enough to seal the victory.

An undefeated ninth-wicket stand of 57 between Yasir Ali and Mohammad Rameez guided Rawalpindi Rams to a tense two-wicket win against Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) in Lahore. Chasing a modest 202, the Rams had all but lost it at 148 for 8 before the pair combined to see their side home in the 45th over. Rameez compiled a run-a-ball 27 with four fours and a six while Ali's 26 off 36 balls included three fours. Earlier, WAPDA failed to bat out their fifty overs, with Aamer Sajjad op scoring with 49. Babbar Naeem, the left-arm spinner, finished with 3 for 50.

Trinidad made the most of a rain-interrupted day, stretching their lead against Barbados to 411 after resuming on their overnight score of 31 for no loss at Guaracara Park.

Play began half-an-hour after the scheduled 9.30 am start as Adrian Barath and William Perkins extended their opening stand to 73 before Perkins was trapped by seamer Kevin Stoute. Barath brought up his half-century, before he too returned to the pavilion, nicking Stoute to 'keeper Patrick Browne. Daren Ganga and Lendl Simmons ensured that there was no further damage before lunch as they took Trinidad to 109 for 2.

But Simmons was run out for 18 after the resumption, while Ganga edged Fidel Edwards to Dale Richards at first slip. Rain forced an early tea, after which only 6.2 overs were bowled, as Stoute snared Simmons for 23 and Gibran Mohammed for 13 to finish the day as Barbados' most impressive bowler with 4 for 46.