Lahore Badshahs were looked least interested in taking singles as they were thrashing the bowlers all around the corners consecutively in the first three overs after they had taken guard to chase a meek total of 140 runs in 20 overs here in Ahmadabad in the 16th match of ICL Season 2 against Mumbai Champs. They took only 3.2 overs to complete their first fifty runs and that too with a stylish lift over the ropes by Rana. Imran Nazir redefined the bowling statistics of Kasparovich’s cricket career by accumulating 30 runs of his first over, distributing equally between boundaries and sixes.

The game was slowed a little bit after Farhat’s departure at 59 runs on the score board with his contribution of 21 runs in eight balls in the 3rd over, credit goes to Iyer and Yadhav. Rana couldn’t escape from a vigilant umpire and he had to leave even after seeking the 3rd umpire’s intervention on a LBW decision, but he kept the momentum going on by smashing a huge six. Inzamam was cool and calm and was guiding Nazir to stay on the crease and the way Nazir played the first over of Iyer was an indication of his advice to stay away from getting over excited.

Cricket360 could feel the eagerness of Nazir to wrap up the matter in less time as he once again got back in to the business after two three saggy overs. By the time he faced 27 balls, 50 runs were contributed to the team total and though looked soft, Inzamam too was reaching up to the boundaries regularly. Badshahs get past the three figures in the first half of their innings itself with the help of another towering six by Nazir.

Cricket360 was expecting another outburst from Nazir over the fence to wind up the match and the same thing happened when he once again looped the ball for the maximum in the second one of the14th over. The fabulous innings by the young Badshah included 9 massive hits to the space and five bullets ensuring the boundaries and he went back home as the man of the match.

Earlier, Inzamam was confident enough on his arsenal of world class bowlers to send the opponents to bat first even though the pitch was expected to be slower after the first innings. Despite being positioned last in the points tally, Mumbai champs were not showing any eagerness to register a win in their encounter against Lahore Badshahs except for the sixth over bowled by Md Sami. Both the openers, Toufeeq and Jhadav decorated it with 19 runs. Champs were a deadpan from the very beginning itself as Toufeeq was dazzled through out the first over by Azhar Mahmood and couldn’t earn even a single run out of it.

Consistent and disciplined bowling by the Lahore side supported by an attacking field chained Champs from every angle and they were struggling to get even singles, despite some poor shows by the Bhadshah fielders. The trio of Tahir, Nazir and Saqlain kept on uprooting wickets of Mumbai Champs at regular intervals and Except Jhadav (57 runs of 46 balls) and Toufeeq (41 runs of 42 balls), nobody could challenge the bowling of Bhadshahs. Quick fire works by Raza at the end helped them to make the total look decent at 140 for five after 20 overs.

Cricket360 was happy to be part of a huge crowd of around 50 thousand, turned up here in Ahmadabad to fell good cricket without any prejudices. 

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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