Lions tamed by Knight Riders

Lahore outfit loses to Kolkata by four wickets in their opening game

KARACHI: Lahore Lions lost their first league match to Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets of the Champions League Twenty20 league round at Hyderbad.

Kolkata came into the match with a win in their bags against Chennai Super Kings. They sent Lahore Lions to bat first with the due factor coming into play in the latter half of the match.

Lions were given a solid start by opener Ahmed Shahzad (59) as he struck five boundaries and four maximums. No other batsmen was able to make a useful contribution except Umar Akmal who scored a blistering 40 off 24 balls to lead Lions to a respectable total of 151-7.

Man-of-the-match Sunil Narine was able to capitulate Lahore batsmen as he bagged three wickets for just nine runs in four overs.

“Mainly I was trying to keep down the run rate in the powerplay and hopefully pick up a wicket or two,” said Narine in the post-match presentation ceremony. “He [Kuldeep Yadav] is a pretty good bowler but he is young and has a lot to learn."

In reply, Kolkata seemed well above mark in their chase with opener Robin Uthappa and captain Gautam Gambhir scoring 100 runs for the first-wicket partnership. Uthapa fell for 46 in the 12th over. He was accounted by Adnan Rasool.

Soon after the gap of one over Gambhir had to take the long walk back with 60 runs to his name after Mustafa Iqbal cleaned him up.

The match went into a thriller phase as soon as Gambhir’s wicket fell. Incoming Manvinder Bisla and Yusuf Pathan (11) managed to add meager contributions but were accounted by Aizaz Cheema who gave 42 runs in his four overs.

Wahab Riaz was called on to bowl the 19th over with nine required of 12 balls. He was up to the task and caught Ryan ten Doeschate in front of the wickets for an LBW spilling away only four runs.
Asif Raza, who bowled only one over was given the task to win the match for Lions. He accounted for

Andre Russell on the very first ball. Kolkata were then able to steal two runs on the second ball of the last over and Suryakumar Yadav finished the game with four.

Lahore captain Hafeez said in the post-match presentation ceremony: “We got the target we wanted to. 150 on this pitch with the way the ball was turning was enough. Our fielding was not up to the mark as we missed a few chances. Still it was a good show, youngsters are learning from every game and we have to give them confidence so they can do well. Shehzad was quite magnificent. Narine bowled superbly."