Chennai Superstars clinch ICL 50-over tournament

Chennai Superstars 242 for 9 (Hariesh 59, Badani 58, Devendran 43, T Kumaran 38*, Srivastava 3-58) beat Delhi Jets 240 (Mishra 64, Ali 45, JP Yadav 42, Tamil Kumaran 5-39 , Thiru Kumaran 2-36) by one wicket
Scorecard

Chennai Superstars completed a double in the Indian Cricket League, adding the 50-over competition crown to their Twenty20 championship win in December last year.

The final of the 50-over tournament, involving only the Indian players recruited for the league, turned out to be a close contest, with the Superstars thrillingly upstaging the Delhi Jets by one wicket.

Jets opted to bat and managed 240 runs before being bowled out in 49 overs. Monish Mishra top scored for the Jets with 64 off 69 balls, with six fours and a six. JP Yadav's 42 off 54 deliveries, Abbas Ali's 45 and Abhinav Bali's 29-ball 33 ensured the Jets posted a competitive total. The standout performance for the Chennai Superstars came from Tamil Kumaran, who took 5 for 39. T Kumaran finished with figures of 2 for 36.

Superstars faltered in their pursuit, and were soon down to 33 for 3. V Devendran and Hemang Badani led a recovery, before Devendran was out for 43. Badani then combined with J Hariesh to put the chase on track. Both batsmen scored fifties but were unable to go on to make a big score, leaving their team in trouble.

Two run-outs in the lower order left Superstars at 208 for 9, and a win seemed improbable. With their hopes hanging on the last-wicket pair, Superstars' T Kumaran blasted 38 from 25 deliveries, with two sixes and three fours, to power his team to a unlikely win. The victory was sealed with four balls to spare.

Tamil Kumaran was named the Man of the Match for his five-wicket haul, while Yadav was declared the Player of the Tournament with 387 runs, eight wickets and five catches from eight matches.

The ICL's next tournament is a proposed Twenty20 championship in March-April, with eight teams expected to participate, up from the current number of six.