Giants overpower Heroes in keen contest

But it was the Jammu and Kashmir batsman Dhruv Mahajan, who soon stabilised the innings, reports Anam Arsalan.

The pom-pom girls made a late appearance; apparently they were stuck in a traffic jam. The crowds, though, had a good reason to cheer, as Monday witnessed the Delhi Giants score their highest total (137 for 8) in the ICL Edelweiss 20s Challenge at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium, here.

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But of course, Malaika Arora Khan's vibrant dance performances filled all the gaps left as far as the entertainment quotient was concerned.

Electing to bat first against Hyderabad Heroes, the Giants openers Avishka Gunawardene and Monish Mishra started off impressively striking all across the ground, but it wasn't before Heroes South African import Justin Kemp struck back. Mishra hooled out a catch to Ambati Rayudu in the deep ending his innings on a partly 14.

But it was the Jammu and Kashmir batsman Dhruv Mahajan, who soon stabilised the innings. Batting at ease he made an impressive 36 off 33 deliveries punctuating his innings with four fours and one over the fence shot.

Mahajan and Gunawardene put on 61 for the second wicket, which not only paved for the following batsmen to play at ease but also proved to be instrumental in Giants seven-run win.

Kemp and Stuart Binny tried hard to resurrect the Heroes batting, but to no avail. The former fell to Bond, caught behind by wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik on 33. Later, Binny (50) and Chris Harris (20) tried to go about the task forging a 39-run partnership for the sixth wicket, but their effort proved to be futile as eventually their team ended up losing the match.

Brief Scores: Delhi Giants 137-8 in 20 overs (A. Gunawardene 28, D. Mahajan 36, A Razzaq 4-23) beat Hyderabad Heroes 130-8 in 20 overs (J. Kemp 33, S. Binny 50, C. Harris 20; T. Sudhindra 3-25, D. Mahajan 2-13) by 7 runs.