Maddy takes four as Tigers maul Lions

Kolkata Tigers 124 (McMillan 20, Sharma 3-23) beat Chandigarh Lions 81 (Farhat 23, Maddy 4-6) by 43 runs
Scorecard

Darren Maddy's four wickets made a mess of the Chandigarh Lions chase and allowed the Kolkata Tigers to pull off their first win of the tournament. A packed Sunday crowd in Panchkula witnessed a high-intensity contest, one where the Tigers prevailed by a comfortable 43-run margin.

Despite no star performer on show, a full house watched the high-voltage contest. The fielding standards have been excellent so far but this was an exhibition to savour. The Lions' TP Singh stole the limelight with an outstanding underarm flick and an even more stunning catch at long-off but the Tigers matched that with some athletic efforts of their own. Upul Chandana deflected a powerful straight drive on to the non-striker's stumps to get rid of Andrew Hall and Deep Dasgupta had a splendid time behind the stumps.

In a contest where 23 was the highest individual score, it was the bowlers and fielders who dominated. Rajesh Sharma, the offspinner from Punjab, snapped up three wickets to restrict the Tigers to 124. He was well supported by Daryl Tuffey who two wickets for eight runs including the wicket of the dangerous Abhishek Jhunjhunwala.

Nantie Hayward and Eklak Ahmid grabbed a wicket apiece but it was the twin run-outs of Sarabjit Singh and Chetan Sharma, both due to poor judgment, that derailed the innings. Chris Cairns' attempted slog ended in a leading edge to cover and the Tigers used the opening to wrap up their first win. Maddy's four victims were largely owing to the batsmen's gung-ho approach but his accuracy was rewarded with the Man-of-the-Match award.

One of the light towers, which has been giving some problems since last night, went off towards the end of the match but the players decided to finish the game anyway.

Four teams have notched up a win in the five games so far. The Mumbai Champs are the only ones to still make a mark on the points table.