Jimmy Maher blasted a swashbuckling 31-ball 56 as Hyderabad Heroes piped Lahore Badshah by just eight runs to win the thrilling second final of the ICL 20-20 championship played at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stadium on Saturday.
After setting a modest target of 159 to win, Hyderabad bowlers rose to the occasion and bundled out Badshahs for 150 in 19.1 overs in an edge-of-the-seat contest to avenge their first final lose and keep alive their chances of winning the title.
Chasing 159 to win, Badshahs made a tottering start and could never really recover with only Shahid Yousuf standing amidst the ruins with a belligerent 51 off 27 balls, slamming six fours and three shots over the rope. But with the asking rate climbing up, the Badshahs kept losing wickets and eventually the match slipped out of their hands.
Opener Imran Nazir (7 off 10 balls) and Imran Farhat (6 off 12 balls) failed to live upto their reputation of giving a explosive start as pacer Abdul Razzaq picked up two wickets in his second over to reduce the Badshahs to eight in three overs.
However, Shahid Yousuf scored 51 off 27 balls including six fours and two sixes to bring up the fifty in the seventh over but Farhat failed to repeat his last match performance and perished two balls later, courtesy a clever piece of stumping by Ibrahim Khaleel off Nicky Boje delivery.
With the required run-rate climbing every ball, the next victim was newly-inducted Mohammad Yousuf (8). He was caught by Ambati Rayudu at mid-wicket while trying to play a lofty shot off Chris Harris in the 10 over.
Shahid Yousuf was caught early by keeper Ibrahim Khaleel off skipper Harris. Inzamam-ul-Haq (10), Azar Mohammad (14) and Khalid Mohammad (3) also had a short stay in the middle, while Mohammad Sami (18) was sent packing by a controversial catch by Justin Kemp at the boundary line.
Earlier, Jimmy Maher slammed a quickfire 31-ball 56 at the top and weaved a 78 run opening partnership with Ibrahim Khaleel (26 off 29 balls) but the Hyderabad Heroes squandered the opportunity and posted a modest total of 158 for seven in allotted 20 overs after Lahore Badshah skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq won the toss and invited them to bat first.
Maher gave the Heroes a brilliant start, combined with Ibrahim Khaleel to bring up the fifty in five overs, before reaching his individual fifty in just 23 balls.
However, Maher did not last long and perished in the next over by a Shahid Nazir yorker to bring an end to the 48-ball 78 run opening partnership. He scored 56 run, which included eleven hits to the fence.
New man Abdul Razzaq soon joined Khaleel as the duo stitched 26 runs in 20 balls to bring up the century in the 11th over before Khaleel was retired hurt by a Shahid Nazir beamer on the right shoulder in the next over.
However, the Heroes failed to keep up the momentum and tumbled like a house of cards, with only Razzaq (15), Stuart Binny (11) and Nicky Boje (10) managing to reach double figures as they managed only 56 runs in the last nine overs at the loss of six wickets to set a modest target of 159 runs against the Lahore Badshahs.
Razzaq was run out by Inzamam-ul-Haq while Binny was castled by Mohammad Sami. Lahore's Naved and Azar Mohammad scaled two wickets each.
ICL: Hyderabad Heroes conquer Lahore
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