Ishan Malhotra smashed highest T20 score of 173 runs to lead his team KXIP Green into Finals

Whirlwind knock of 173 (68 balls, 14x4, 14x6) by Ishan Malhotra lead his team KXIP Green into the Finals as they thrashed KXIP Blue by 108 runs in the last league match played at Sector-16, Cricket Stadium, Chandigarh here today.

In the first match played here today belligerent knocks by Ravi Inder Singh (46), Yashpal Singh (32) & Dhruv Mahajan (31) and then hostile bowling spell by Akashy Chauhan (4 for 27) enabled KXIP Silver to beat KXIP Red by 20 runs. Put into bat by KXIP Red team Silver team piled a handsome total of 154 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in allotted 20 overs. Off spinner Gurvinder Singh was pick of the bowlers for Red team as he captured 4 wickets at the cost of 32 runs. He was ably supported by left arm spinner Ajay Bhardwaj who took 2 wickets for 28 runs.

KXIP Red team lost 2 quick wickets in first over with scoreboard reading 0 for 2 after 1st over. Akshay Chauhan was instrument in sending back both top order batsman back to pavilion.

Skipper Chetan Sharma (50) & Preet Kamal (39) repaired the innings with a partnership of 64 runs for the 3rd wicket partnership. But it was not enough to achieve the target as after the departure of Preet Kamal and Chetan Sharma wickets no one showed resistance and wickets were falling in regular interval and at last they fell short by 20 runs.

Akshay Chauhan was declared Man of the Match for his devastating bowling spell.

Brief Scores: KXIP Silver 154 for 8 in 20 overs (Ravi Inder Singh 46, Yashpal singh 32, Dhruv Mahajan 31, Gurvinder Singh 4 for 32, Ajay Bhardwaj 2 for 28)

KXIP Red 134 for 8 in 20 overs (Chetan Sharma 50, Preet Kamal 39, Sunny Sharma 19, Akshay Chuhan 4 for 27, Taruwar Kohli 2 for 26)

In the second match played at same venue we witnessed a swashbuckling knock from the blade of Ishan Malhotra (173) who was in great touch from the world go. He reached to his fifty in just 22 balls, hundred in 34 balls, 150 runs in 57 balls and his overall knock of 173 runs came off 68 balls with the help of 14 boundaries and 14 towering sixes. He achieved the milestone of scoring highest runs in T20. He break the record of 158 runs scored by Brendon McCullum in the inaugural match of IPL-1 on 18th April 2008 while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Bangalore. He punished every bowler to all parts of park. Prashant Chopra right arm leg spinner succeeded to see his back as he took a very good back running catch off his own bowling in 20th overs. Chopra was most successful bowler for KXIP Blue as he claimed 3 wickets for just 22 runs. In this essay KXIP Green piled up a huge total of 257 runs in allotted 20 overs.

Chasing to a daunting task KXIP Blue team started off well through Rangarajan (19) & Prashant Chopra (90) but it was huge task to achieve the target. Chopra showed good class and played beautiful strokes all over the ground but trying to accelerate the innings missed his century. His innings of 90 runs came off 60 balls which was studded with 12 sweetly timed hits to boundary and one over it. At last KXIP Blue team could manage to score only 149 runs for the loss of 5 wickets and lost the match by 108 runs.

Ishan Malhotra for his record breaking knock of 173 runs was adjudged Man of the Match.

Brief Scores : KXIP Green : 257 for 6 in 20 overs (Ishan Malhotra 173, Bhavin Thakkar 46, Siddharth Chitnis 23, Prashant Chopra 3 for 22, Abhishek Awasthy 2 for 12)

KXIP Blue : 149 for 5 in 20 overs (Prashant Chopra 90, Maloan Ragarajan 19, Talwinder Singh 14 n.o., Sumit Verma 3 for 29, Rajesh Verma 1 for 25)

Three teams finished at 4 points each with registering 2 wins from 3 league matches but on the basis of better Net Run Rate KXIP Green and KXIP Red qualified for the finals.

Tomorrow KXIP Green will lock horns for the title clash with KXIP Red in the finals at PCA Stadium, Mohali