Lahore Badshahs' on a roll

The newly entrant team Lahore Badshahs maintained its dominance and kept its golden run going as they overpowered another novel competitor Ahmedabad Rockets by 11 runs in an inconsequential match at least for them, since they are sitting pretty comfortably at the top of the points table, in the Edelweiss 20s Challenge match played at the floodlit Lal Bahadur Stadium here on Sunday.

Man of the Match Rana Naved-Ul-Hasan kept the tight leash while leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed and seamer Mohammad Sami picked up two wickets each for Badshahs to limit Rockets’ eleven runs short of the set target of 152.

Badshahs skipper Inzamam-Ul-Haq won the toss and elected to bat. Rockets got off to a great start with Heath streak sending the dangerous Imran Farhat back to dugout without troubling the scorers.

Streak and Rakesh Patel were finding a rare combination of some good swing and pace causing a bit of a bother for the Badshahs' batsmen. Badshahs were comfortably placed at 41/1 after the end of initial five overs with Imran Nazir looking in ominous touch.

Taufeeq Umar and Nazir stitched a good partnership and took Badshahs score to 61/1 in the 9th over. But Sumit Kalia picked up three quick wickets in his 2nd over ripping apart famed Badshahs line up tottering at 62/4 in the middle of the innings.

Kalia got the prized wicket of Inzamam-Ul-Haq for only 8 and put the Badshahs in some serious trouble at 80/5. Kalia finished his stupendous spell of 4/20 in the 14th over after bringing Rockets back in contention.

Badshahs were placed at 96/5 by the end of the 15th over, with its inform batsman Hasan Raza holding the key. Latif and Raza combined well to add 47 runs, but their partnership finally ended with Sriram castling Latif for 11 in the penultimate over of the innings.

Sriram also got rid of the dangerous looking Raza in the same over after a wonderful innings of 44. The Rockets finally had a creditable evening in the field restricting the Badshahs 151/9.

Chasing the target of 152, Rockets came out with their most experienced batsmen Martyn and Wavell Hinds to open the innings. But Badshahs Azhar Mahmood, who has made it a habit to dismantle the opening partnerships, got his act in the 3rd over sending the explosive Hinds back only for 10.

Rockets were placed at 33/1 at the end of the 5th over with their captain Martyn battling with the Badshahs. Sami sent back Martyn and Goodwin came in the sixth over to put the Rockets faltering at 34/3.

Rockets were at 63/4 midway through the innings, needing another 89 off the last 10 overs with an average of 9 runs per over. Sriram was going good keeping the Rockets in contention with ably supported by Anshu Jain on the other end.

But the destiny has something different in store as the unfortunate dismissal of Sriram in the 13th over gave major setback to Rockets chances.

Rockets needed 40 runs to win in the last 4 overs at 10 runs per over with 5 wickets in hand. Streak and Anshu put up a valiant fight against the mighty Badshahs taking the match right down to the wire.

But in the end some brilliant under pressure bowling by Rana Naved and Azhar Mahmood helped Badshahs romp home by 11runs. Even Anshu Jain’s run a ball knock (43, 43 balls, 4x4) couldn’t do much to save Rockets from the hands of defeat.

Brief Scores: Lahore Badshahs: 151 for nine in 20 overs (Hasan Raza 44, Heath Streak three for 45, Sumit Kalia four for 20, Sridharan Sriram two for 19) bt Ahmedabad Rockets: 140 for six in 20 overs (Anshu Jain 43, Mohammad Sami two for 25, Mushtaq Ahmed two for 30).