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Thrilling win for Hyderabad Heroes

V.V. Subrahmanyam

AHMEDABAD: Hyderabad Heroes pulled off a dramatic eight-run win over Lahore Badshahs in the second of the best-of-three finals to extend the issue into the third final of the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 cricket championship at the Sardar Patel Stadium here on Saturday night.

Badshahs made a heavy weather of a modest target, as with the exception of Shahid Yousuf 51 (27b, 6x4, 3x6), none looked good enough to last long.

Yousuf made his intentions clear early on by hitting Razaq for a six and two fours after the bowler trapped Imran Nazir leg before for seven in the third over of the innings.

When Razzaq bowled Naved-ul-Hassan (0) with a beauty which swung late, Badshahs showed first signs of panic.

Panic

And, it never really recovered as the stars Mohammad Yousuf (8) hit Chris Harris straight to Ambati Rayudu in the deep and left-arm spinner Indrasekhar Reddy forced Inzamam-ul-Haq (10) to sweep straight to deep square-leg to reduce Badshahs to 87 for six in 12. 4 overs.

The big hitting Azhar Mehmood (14) too perished, caught in the deep. And, Justin Kemp pulled off a spectacular one-handed catch running to his left to send back a dangerous looking Mohammad Sami 18 (8b, 2x6) to reduce it to 132 for nine in 17.4 overs.

It was all over bar the shouting despite Saqlain Mushtaq’s cameo 22 not out (13b, 1x4, 2x6).

There was some drama when Badshahs gave an impression of walking off the field protesting that the catch was not clean. But the umpires ensured play continued to see the Heroes a deserving winner in the end as Razzaq, Binny, Boje, Harris picked two wickets apiece.

Early onslaught

Earlier, Lahore Badshahs fought back brilliantly despite the early onslaught from opener Jimmy Maher 56 (31b, 11x4) to restrict Heroes to a modest score.

Maher looked in ominous form even as the catching was substandard. Shahid Yousuf dropped Ibrahim Khaleel when on eight and Imran Nazir floored Maher when he was on 39. But Nazir struck soon, cleaning up Maher to break the opening partnership (78 for one in eight overs).

The scores: Hyderabad Heroes 158 for seven in 20 overs (Jimmy Maher 56) bt Lahore Badshahs 150 in 19.1 overs (Shahid Yousuf 51).

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