With the victory, the Lions have accumulated eight points out of the maximum 12. Earlier, they triumphed against the Mumbai Indians but were later thrashed by New Zealand’s Northern Knights.
Till the filing of this report, their hopes were attached to the Mumbai-Knights match as victory for Mumbai would kill the Lions’ hopes of going through.
Batting first, the Lions posted a decent total of 164-6 in 20 overs courtesy skipper Muhammad Hafeez, who scored a quickfire 67 off 40 deliveries studded with four sixes and five boundaries.
Saad Naseem chipped in with a 25-ball 31 while Ahmed Shehzad struck 29. Farveez Maharoof picked up three wickets.
In reply, Express were all out for 109 in 18 overs with captain Jehan Mubarak scoring 35. Aizaz set the tone for the win, claiming three wickets while Wahab Riaz and Adnan Rasool bagged two wickets apiece.
“The boys have done a tremendous job because we knew that we had to win this game at any cost,” said Hafeez after the match.
“Several of our players have played for the first on such a huge stage, but they have shown courage which is really heartening to see. We have done the job; let’s see how it goes from here on.”
Speaking about his own batting, Hafeez said that he had struggled to get going early on, but as the innings progressed, he settled and went for big shots towards the end.
“I was struggling to hit the ball early on, and in that over I thought why not go after every ball, and it worked for me.”
He further added that it had always been great playing in India and they wanted to stay here and play more cricket.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2014.
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