Newly introduced Lahore Badshahs team proved their superiority, as they turned into Superstars, in their very first match by defeating defending champion Chennai Superstars by five wickets in an exciting Edelweiss 20s Challenge match played at the Tau Devi Lal stadium here on Tuesday.
Lahore’s skipper Inzamam-Ul-Haq (50 n.o.) and Naved Latif (41) put on crucial 77 runs in nine overs to pave the way for Badshahs victory after Thiru Kumaran raised hopes for Superstars by dismissing Imran Nazir (10), Humayun Farhat (13) and Hazan Raza (0) in his opening spell.
Opting to bat, Chennai Superstars managed 157 for six in their stipulated overs after riding on opener Michael Bevan’s 56 and Hemang Badani’s 30. The Superstars had a timid start due to some fine quality seam bowling early on in the innings from the new ball pair of Azhar Mahmood and Rana Naved.
Superstars were struggling at 22/1 after five overs with their main batsman Ian Harvey back in the pavilion. But soon Badani and Bevan provided some resistance to the Superstars team as by the end of the 11th over the superstars were placed at 62/2 with both batsmen trying to build a fruitful partnership.
Unfortunately the partnership could not last long with Badani being run out in the 14th over tottering the Superstars at 82/3. Superstars captain R Satish soon followed Badani back into the dug out in quest of increasing the run rate.
Bevan's wonderful innings of 56 finally came to an end in the 19th over from Saqlain. The Superstars finished its innings at 157/6 with a late charge from J. Syed Mohammed who got 15 off only 5 balls.
Replying to Superstars total of 157, Badshahs opened with the two Imrans, Farhat & Nazir. Nazir instantly got off the blocks by hitting two consecutive boundaries of Tamil Kumaran in the 3rd over.
Both the openers displayed some powerful strokes all around the ground, till Tamil Kumaran got the first breakthrough for the Superstars, cleaning up Imran Farhat for 20.
Satish brought on his most successful bowler T Kumaran as first change in the fifth over and he responded immediately by getting the dangerous Imran Nazir & Hasan Raza of consecutive deliveries.
Chennai Superstars came back in the match reducing the Badshahs at 32/3 in five overs, thanks to an inspired first maiden over laced with a couple of wickets from T Kumaran. T Kumaran also got rid of Hummayun Farhat in his second over, leaving Badshahs tottering at 47/4.
Badshahs were delicately placed at 63/4 at the end of 10th over. Inzamam got a reprieve with a stumping chance off the bowling of Syed in the 11th over that later changed the course of the match.
Naved Latif and Inzamam took Badshahs score to 107/4 by the end of 15th over with Badshahs needing 51 runs off 30 balls at an average of 10 runs per over.
Inzamam shifted his gears and went for some big hitting as he dispatched Ian Harvey for some big hits in the 16th over but Harvey bounced back well as he dismissed the dangerous looking Naved Latif for 41 in the same over.
Man of the match Inzamam took the level of his batting to a completely new level. Finally the class of Inzamam saw the Lahore Badshahs romped home in the final over in company of the experienced Azhar Mahmood.
Brief Scores: Chennai Superstars 157 for six in 20 overs (Michael Bevan 56, Hemang Badani 30, Naved-ul-Hasan two for 19, Saqlain Mushtaq two for 26) lost to Lahore Badshahs 158 for five in 19 overs (Inzamam-ul-Haq 50 n.o., Naved Latif 41, Imran Farhat 20, Thiru Kumaran three for 22).
Wednesday’s match: Mumbai Champs vs. Kolkata Tigers.
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