ICL title goes to Lahore
It was complete annihilation. In retribution for last year's reverse and the recent controversy, Lahore Badshahs drubbed Hyderabad Heroes in style to lift the Indian Cricket League trophy yesterday. Hyderabad were restricted to 158 and Imran Nazir sizzled with a 44-ball 111 to end the chase in a blink at Ahmedabad.
The cheerleaders, who were supposed to jiggle after each boundary, were severely tested by Nazir's fury and they could not match him in the end. When their dancing stopped, Lahore's players celebrated their triumph on a night that they dominated.
Faced with the same target on Saturday night, Lahore were strangely subdued at the start and were always behind the eight-ball. Not tonight. Nazir indulged himself, Imran Farhat watched, and the crowd roared as the white ball kept sailing into the sky. He did not wait a ball to launch his assault. The first one, sent down by Abdul Razzaq, disappeared over extra-cover boundary for a six, the fifth flashed over long-off and the sixth screamed over deep midwicket. Twenty-four runs had come in the first over, Razzaq disappeared from the attack and Nazir went from strength to strength.
Hyderabad tried spin as early as the third over but it did not matter a jot. Nazir did not let any thing affect his style of play. He did not mind the injury that forced him to get a runner, nor the dropped catch by Nicky Boje at long-on when he was on 58 and simply carried on walloping. He brought up the hundred with a fierce heave over long-on but by then Hyderabad had long surrendered.
Nothing went right for them from the beginning. They recycled their first two finals' script: start well, slow down in the middle and disintegrate in the end to finish on a par score. To be fair they did try some thing different; they promoted Anirudh Singh at No. 3 and sent the inform Boje ahead of Justin Kemp, who did not find his touch in this tournament with the bat, but they could not sizzle. Only opener Ibrahim Khaleel sparkled tonight. He started off with two streaky fours of Mohammad Sami before using the long handle effectively against all bowlers. He repeatedly backed away to free his arms. He smoked a back-of-length delivery from Shahid Nazir over midwicket boundary for his shot of the night. But it was not a patch on Nazir's scorching effort.
It has been an interesting ride for the Badshahs. Winless after the first two games, the poker faced Inzamamul Haq was asked by the press, "Inzy bhai, you have lost both the games."
Inzamam fixed his eye on the questioner and dead-panned, "I know." Nervous silence paved way for laughter in the room and ever so slowly Inzamam smiled. He has not stopped since then, though it has been punctuated with streak of anger. A streak of five wins in a row was halted in the second final that saw some controversy but regular programming continued tonight. And what a fun show it was.
Comments