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A superb captain's knock by Chris Harris brought holders Hyderabad Heroes back from jaws of defeat and powered them to a four-wicket win in their ICL T20 encounter against Dhaka Warriors at the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday night.
Requiring 13 runs in the last over to win, Harris hit a four, a six and again a four in three consecutive balls to guide his team to success.
Chasing a competitive target of 169, the Hyderabad team faltered in its campaign as the top order batsmen failed.
While openers James Maher and Abdul Razzaq were out for 21 and 27 respectively, Justin Kemp and Stuart Binny returned to the pavilion for 10 and 31.
Local hero Ambati Rayudu, who had hit an impressive knock in the last match, disappointed today as he was dismissed for just five runs.
However, a determined Harris, in the company of Nicky Boje, got down to salvage the innings and went on to make 37, including the six in the last over and a total of five boundaries, in just 17 balls. Boje scored 31 runs in 32 balls.
The fact that the debutant Dhaka team gave a tough time to a stronger Hyderabad side was made possible by a superb century by Alok Kapali -- the first three-figure knock in ICL.
Kapali stood tall among the ruins of Dhaka Warriors which lost wickets at the other end at regular intervals. The superb innings of Kapali was studded with five sixes and 11 boundaries in just 59 deliveries.
Kapali's wonderful knock helped his team, underdogs in the tournament, reach a respectable total of 168 runs.
Except Kapali, all other batsmen were dismissed cheaply as Hyderabad Heroes bowler Abdul Razzaq packed off the Dhaka openers Shahriar Nafees and Nazimuddin in the first over itself.
While Nafees was out in the first ball, Nazimuddin fell in the sixth delivery.
Though Aftab Ahmed, who scored 24 runs, gave company to Kapali for some time, he too returned to the pavilion soon. The Warriors captain Habibul Bashar was out for just one.
Similar was the story with other batsmen who were out for single digit scores and the only batsman to enter double figures subsequently was Mahabubul Karim who made 11.
Hyderabads Abdul Razzaq and Nicky Boje claimed three wickets each while Stuart Binny and Indrasekhar Reddy took one wicket each.
This is the second successive win for the Hyderabad Heroes and defeat for Dhaka Warriors in as many matches.