ICL carnival begins: Lahore Badshahs win in style

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ICL carnival begins: Lahore Badshahs win in style

The only dampener was the cricket match played between two clearly unequal teams; while the Lahore Badshahs, which won the match in style, was studded by some top Pakistani players, Delhi Giants clearly had the feet of clay.

CJ: Abhishek Behl

Mon, Mar 24, 2008 13:51:42 IST

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A CARNIVAL atmosphere, full house, top cricketers, Bollywood stars, cheer girls were all there to make the ICL Cricket League’s match between Lahore Badshahs and Delhi Giants an unforgettable experience at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon, on March 23.

In the twenty overs match, Delhi Giants could score only 104 runs in the allotted overs, which was chased easily by Lahore Badshahs, helped by a stroke filled half-century by Imran Nazir in 47 balls.

Despite the presence of Shane Bond, the New Zealand quickie, the Giants did not offer much resistance to the Inzamam lead Badshahs, who resembled almost the complete Pakistan team representing their country.

Earlier, Delhi Giants won the toss and elected to bat, a decision that certainly proved them costly as the ball kept low on the newly prepared wicket at the Gurgaon stadium. Giants were given a reasonable start by Avishka Gunawardene and Monish Mishra, who scored the highest 31 runs for his team.

Delhi Giants lost the first wicket at 19 runs when Gunawardene was caught by Shahid Nazir of the bowling of Azhar Mahmood, who bowled well within the stumps.

This brought captain Marvan Attapattu to the crease and he managed to build a small partnership with Mishra, who played some scintillating shots on all parts of the ground, a straight drive off Azhar Mahmood brought the crowd to its feet.

Mishra unable to decipher a googly from Pakistan great Mushtaq Ahmed, played on the wickets, after making 33 runs in 31 balls.

The Pakistan leg spinner bowled an excellent spell, showing that the veteran still had a lot going for him. In his four overs, he gave just 20 runs claiming three crucial wickets, causing a collapse from which Giants could not recover.

Barring Attapattu and Shane Bond, who scored 12 and 17 respectively, none of the Delhi Giants batsmen could do justice with the bat, as all except Ian Pothas could not reach double figures.

Shahid Nazeer and Mohammad Sami also bowled well for Lahore team, restricting Delhi to 103 runs, which proved to be an easy target.

Chasing the target, Lahore Badshahs lost an early wicket in the form of Imran Farhat, caught by Mishra on the bowling of right arm medium fast bowler, Sudhindra.

The minor flutter, however, did nothing good as a rampaging Imran Nazir made 61 runs in 47 balls, including six boundaries and one well hit six.

Nazir batted well mixing grace with power and dishing out what cricket lovers come to see in the twenty-20 games. Except for his innings, the match lacked the firepower for which this format of the game is famous.

The Badshahs came home in just 14. 5 overs, making the chase of 103 run look much easier than expected.

However, the one-sided match could not dampen the spirit of the cricket lovers, who invaded the pitch as soon as the match was over, taking the organisers, players and even the police by surprise.

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