Batting first, Lions scored 164 for six with skipper Mohammed Hafeez scoring 67 off 40 balls with five fours and four sixes. In reply, Express could manage only 109 in 18 overs with Aizaz Cheema taking three for 15 while Wahab Riaz took two for 20.

Southern Express' skipper Jehan Mubarak feels spinners could not get much out of the conditions after his side lost their Champions League Twenty20 qualifying round match to Mumbai Indians.

Northern Knights registered a convincing seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka's Southern Express in a rain-curtailed opening game of the Champions League T20.

Southern Express batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan joined high profile stars like Rohit Sharma, Morne Morkel and Shakib al Hasan in the list of absentees from the Champions League Twenty20 this season.

Sri Lanka player Jehan Mubarak was taken in custody by police and later released on bail after the car he was driving was involved in a fatal accident that killed one person and injured another at Maikkulan on the Chilaw-Colombo main road on Sunday.

Wayamba skipper Jehan Mubarak admitted that the Sri Lankan side was little late in getting their acts together in the Champions League Twenty20.