Former South African all-rounder Lance Klusener's valiant effort of 91 went in vain as Lahore Badshahs made their way into the final to set up title clash with Hyderabad Heroes, after scoring a close seven-run win over Kolkata Tigers in the second semi-final of the ICL Edelweiss 20s Challenge tournament here on Thursday.
The first final will be played in Panchkula on Friday.
Chasing a substantial target of 183, Klusener kept his team in the hunt until the end despite being dropped by Mohammad Sami. Kolkata Tigers needed just 18 runs off the last over.
Man-of-the-match Klusener single-handedly took away the match from the hands of Badshahs grip, which remained unbeaten in the tournament thus far. Klusener's 57-ball knock was studded with 11 boundaries and three sixes. Klusener also took two wickets for Tigers.
Tigers needed 10 runs of last two deliveries. Klusener ran two runs in the penultimate ball but eight more runs needed off the last ball, but ill-starred Klusener went off the last delivery in quest of huge six ending up in Imran Nazir’s hands off the bowling of Azhar Mahmood.
Earlier, Badshahs won the toss and lost opener Imran Farhat for a duck, but Nazir (42), Humayun Farhat (39) and Inzamam (33) made healthy and useful contribution in the top order to post 182 for seven in their stipulated 20 overs.
Later Naved Latif’s flashy 17 ball 27 and Azhar Mahmood’s quick-fire 24 runs in eight balls helped the Badshahs attain the challenging total. Shahid Nazir was the most successful bowler for Badshahs, as he finished with figures of 4-0-2-12.
Wicketkeeper batsman Deep Dasgupta (22) and Rohan Gavaskar (23) made handy contributions for the Tigers in the middle of the innings to achieve the desired total but it didn’t turn out to be fruitful in the end as they fell seven runs short of their target.
Brief Scores: Lahore Badshahs: 182/7 in 20 overs (Nazir 42, Humayun 39, Sagar 2/19) bt Kolkata Tigers: 175/4 (Klusener 93, Gavaskar 23, Nazir2/12)
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