Reetinder Singh Sodhi's quickfire 41 off 15 balls went in vain as Hyderabad Heroes scampered past Ahmedabad Rockets by three runs in a thrilling 23rd match of the ICL Twenty20 Championship at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon on Wednesday night.
Chasing a target of 167 in 20 overs, Ahmedabad Rockets made a good start but failed to maintain the momentum and the match slipped out of their hands in the end.
Murray Goodwin (59 off 50) and Ryan Campbell (33 off 27) put up a 54-run opening partnership in 9.2 overs, but the rest of the batsmen, save Sodhi, failed to accelerate the scoring as Rockets could muster only 163-3 in their 20 overs.
Earlier, Hyderabad Heroes survived a mini-collapse and came back strongly to post a challenging 166 for 6 in 20 overs, courtesy some sparkling innings from middle order batsmen Stuart Binny, Nicky Boje and Harris.
Rockets' pace trio of Jason Gillespie, Rakesh Patel and Heath Streak combined to wreck havoc on the Heroes after skipper Damien Martyn won the toss.
The pace trio ripped through the top order to leave the Heroes stuttering at 30 for four in 6.3 overs.
Gillespie and Patel took two wickets, while Streak and Sumit Kalia scalped one each.
