Cricket

ICL 1st Final: Lahore Badshahs beat Hyderabad Heroes

Imran Farhat slammed a quickfire 38-ball 65 as Lahore Badshahs survived a scare before scraping through a four-wicket victory over Hyderabad Heroes in an edge-of-the-seat first final of the ICL 20-20 championship played at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stadium on Thursday.

Chasing a target of 171 to win, Badshahs survived a middle-order collapse to reach the target in 19.1 overs and drew first blood in the three-match finals. Imran Nazir started Badshahs’ riposte with a fury as the opener clobbered two sixes and three fours in 10 balls to amass 28 runs in two overs before perishing in the next over, when he tried to slice a Abdul Razzaq delivery only to see his top-edge fly high and land into the safe hands of Justin Kemp at mid-on.

However, his partner Imran Farhat continued the carnage and combined with new man Naved-ul-Hasan to reach 58 in five overs, before Nicky Boje tightened the screw giving away only one run in his first over and six runs in his second, which included a missed stumping chance of Naved.

Naved, however, could not make use of the opportunity and perished in Boje’s next over. Looking for a lofty shot, Naved was caught just in front of the rope by Indra Shekhar Reddy in the 10th over. Soon Mohammad Yousuf joined Farhat in the middle and the duo weaved together a 45-run partnership in 24 balls. Farhat butchered the bowlers mercilessly and brought up the century in the 11th over with a six and a four, en route to his fifty in the next over with another boundary.

However, Farhat did not last long as he was sent packing in the next over by Anirudh Singh as Badshahs’ lost their third wicket. He scored 65 off 38 balls, marked by five fours and as many sixes.

Badshahs’ lost three more wickets: Inzamam-ul-Haq (5), Yousuf (11) and Shahid Yousuf (5), within the span of two overs as all of a sudden the match started swinging on Heroes side. Inzamam was castled by skipper Chris Harris and Yousuf was run out by a clever piece of fielding by Stuart Binny, while Shahid was adjudged leg before wicket in the 16th over as the Badshahs’ were reduced to 142 for six.

Tags: 1st final, Hyderabad Heroes, ICL, Lahore Badshahs, result