Powered by Ganapathi Vignesh's 53-ball 88, table toppers Chennai Superstars crushed Mumbai Champs by 75 runs in the Indian Cricket League's Twenty20 match in Panchkula on Sunday.
Posting 205-7, the highest total of the tournament so far, the Superstars made their intentions clear right from the start.
Vignesh showed little respect for reputed bowlers like Michael Kasprowicz and opposition skipper Nathan Astle. His knock included seven boundaries and five sixes. He stayed at the crease till the 17th over when left arm bowler Avinash Yadav had him bowled after beating him in the flight.
Down the order, Superstars' skipper Stuart Law also hit a useful 11-ball 29 after losing top-order batsmen Russel Arnold (2) and Hemang Badani (14) cheaply.
Jonathan vander Vath claimed three scalps for the Champs.
Chasing the mammoth total was always going to be an uphill task for Mumbai Champs, who also had a poor run in the ICL's first season last year under Brian Lara.
There was no comparison between the two teams, with Superstars racing to 100 in just over 10 overs while Champs at the end of 10 overs were way behind at 49.2.
Barring Nathan Astle's unbeaten knock of 68, which included three boundaries and four sixes, Champs batsmen D S Jadhav (7), N S Mandale (6), Hasan Raza (17) and Vath (2) failed to tackle M Hayward, Shabeer Ahmed, Jesuraj and even Vignesh.
Despite losing only five wickets, the Champs failed to even reach close to the target set for them.
With this loss, the Champs are languishing at the bottom of the points table having now played seven games with just one win while Superstars have won five of their six games so far.
