[hack]

India Pistons rides on Srinivasan’s century

Sports Reporter
Chennai: An unbeaten 56-ball 100 from R. Srinivasan powered India Pistons to a 20-run win over IOB Staff Club in the semifinals of the Hindu Trophy Twenty20 tournament here on Saturday.

In Monday’s final, Pistons will meet Precision Infomatic, winner of the second semifinal against Southern Railway by nine wickets.

Timing the ball crisply either side of the wicket, the 23-year-old Srinivasan played marginal second fiddle in a third wicket stand of 89 off 65 balls to M.R. Shrinivas, who made 52.

Flurry of shots
After Shrinivas’s exit in the 17th over with the score on 137, Srinivasan exploded, and went from 65 to 100 in eight balls – a sequence that included four boundaries, three whistling sixes and a strolled single to bring up the landmark.

Srinivasan’s late pyrotechnics proved decisive in the end, for IOB finished just 20 runs short.

Veteran opener Amit Pathak began the chase with frightening intent, swatting portly left-arm spinner V. Krishnaji for three sixes in the second over of the innings, and seven in all in making a 58-ball 85.

With no one else contributing substantially, however, IOB simply couldn’t meet the mounting required rate late in the game.

Collapse
In the other semifinal, the fall of opener G. Umapathy, who made an attractive 49, provoked Southern Railway to collapse insanely from 90 for two in the 13th over to 111 all out, with the bulk of the batsmen holing out in the deep. In reply,

S. Anirudha demonstrated how exactly to clear the rope, doing so six times in a manic 39-ball 77, as Precision Infomatics coasted to its target in less than 10 overs.

The scores:

India Pistons 191 for three in 20 overs (R. Srinivasan 100 not out, M.R. Shrinivas 52) bt IOB Staff Club 171 for seven in 20 overs (Amit Pathak 85, Pramod Doss 26, M. Prabhu three for 29).

Southern Railway SA 111 in 18.4 overs (G. Umapathy 49, K.R. Shiv Prakash three for 28, S. Gopinath four for 15) lost to Precision Infomatic 112 for one in 9.3 overs (S. Anirudha 77).

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu

[El Axe]

How about this other one (Notice the url -- www. STUFF. co. nz -- Coach Curry would approve)

Pistons grind out semifinal win over Cougars | Stuff.co.nz

For the second night on end, a National Basketball League (NBL) semifinal went right to the wire as Waikato Pistons downed Christchurch Cougars 96-89 in Te Awamutu tonight.

Following on from Nelson Giants' last-gasp 83-82 win over Wellington Saints last night, it took a some cool heads from the Pistons in a frantic last quarter to secure the win.

The scores tied 26-26 at the end of the first spell, but while Waikato threatened to run away in the second quarter the Cougars refused to lie down and hauled them back every time.

Ahead by just two at halftime 50-48, the Pistons showed their class to take the third quarter 28-18 and looked set to cruise to victory.

But despite leading 78-66 at the three-quarter mark, they had to deal with a stirring comeback as the Cougars closed to within two with just on five minutes remaining.

Christchurch had secured their semifinal spot with an upset 106-98 overtime quarterfinal victory against North Harbour on Wednesday, when Paora Winitana bagged a game-high 38.

Winitana was again in dominant form tonight, running a slick Christchurch offence that refused to take a step backwards and matched Waikato basket for basket.

Centre Tim Behrendorff, who sunk 20 points against North Harbour, stepped up an extra notch tonight, effective from the three-point line as well as inside as he picked up 18 first half points in an overall total of 25.

Pistons point guard Michael Fitchett was also outstanding from the three-point line, totalling 24 for the game, while teammate Justin Bailey was unstoppable, forcing turnovers, stealing possession and working the ball quickly downcourt.

Fitchett also did a good job restricting Cougars maestro Paul Henare to just 17 points for the match. Another outstanding all-round effort came from the Pistons' Thomas Abercrombie, who backed up his 23 points for the night with seven rebounds and some impressive shot-blocking.

Waikato now head into the best-of-three finals series against Nelson next week.

-NZPA

[hack]

lol @ the stuff/curry crack...

[JMab]

Who said cricket was boring...

"late pyrotechnics"

"frightening intent"

"collapse insanely"

[Dave Bing]

IOB simply couldn’t meet the mounting required rate late in the game.

How much mounting is required in cricket?

[Money23]

That's what she said.