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Eagles win a thriller against Sussex
Diamond Eagles defeated Sussex Sharks in a pulsating Super Over contest and joined New South Wales from Group B in the Super Eight stage of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament, reports Deepika Sharma.
There came a moment, when everyone present at the Ferozeshah Kotla, sat at the edge of their seats and woke up to a match that was not just thrilling but proved money's worth.
Earlier, very few people seemed to care about what was happening in the middle on Tuesday night. Most who turned up for the Sharks v Eagles game were busy getting dancing lessons from the cheerleaders.
Every time a four or six was hit, the cheerleaders would show off their dancing moves in full flow, and following them was the bindaas Delhi crowd -— matching each and every step closely.
However, towards the end, they rolled their eyes to the field — much to the dismay of the cheerleaders — to witness Diamond Eagles' entertaining one-over eliminator win over the Sussex Sharks.
It was undoubtedly the most thrilling match of the Champions League so far. With the scores tied after 20 overs, the game went to the dreaded super over, where Eagles' Cornelius de Villiers removed Dwayne Smith and Rory Hamilton-Brown off successive deliveries to book the South African side’s place in the league stage.
Things, however, weren't looking all that bright for the Eagles after they could only manage nine off their super over. But Yasir Arafat's brilliance was overshadowed by de Villiers. And how!
The game went into the super over after Ryan McLaren hit a desperate boundary off the last ball from Arafat. The Eagles, at one stage, looked in a good position to finish it off early. Chasing 120 for victory, the openers Rilee Rossouw (65 off 62) and Adrian McLaren (16 off 28) started well. But things began to change dramatically, when the Sussex bowlers pulled it back with some good work.