After winning a closely contested semi finals against WC Warriors, ICGC Warriors won the important toss and decided to bat in final match against worthy competitor Badshas which did not lose any matches in league and qualified into finals. Mohammed Yasser and Shahul Hameed opened the batting for ICGC Warriors and scored 28/1 in first 4 overs. When Yaseer departed for 14 in 3rd over Mujahid joined Shahul to accelerate the scoring for team. Badshas team bowled well in first 4 overs but bowling attack ran out of steam and conceded lots of runs. ICGC warriors capitalized on this and scored 57 runs in last 4 overs of their innings by losing Mujahid’s wicket only at the end of 8th over. Mujahid scored valuable 33 runs with 1 boundary and 3 sixes. Shahul Hameed remained not out on 25 with a boundary and sixer. With this excellent partnership ICGC Warriors set an excellent and competitive target of 86 runs against Badshas. Coming to Badshas batting Saad and Sheharyar opened the innings. Saad hit an impressive sixer on third ball of first over but lost his important wicket on 5th ball to Mannan. Bilal Manzoor was promoted to play big hits but he gave a catch to fielder in deep mid wicket while trying to hit the ball out of the park. Enters captain Tabish and hit an impressive sixer on his first ball in over no 2 from Ahamed Bilal. In over 3 Badshas lost one more crucial wicket of Sheharyar as asking run rate started to put pressure on Badshas. Tabish and new batsmen Sameer tried to steady the Badshas ship in next two overs by scoring few runs, but Yaseer took Sameer’s wicket in last ball of over no 4. Badshas scored 30 in first 4 overs but lost 4 important wickets. Warriors were 28/1 at this stage of their innings. Badshas needed 56 runs in 24 balls with 5 wickets. Still possible task with Tabish at the crease. Tabish played few big shots but lost his wicket in 5 balls of 6th over. Very good catch by Mujahid in deep. With fall of Tabish’s wicket in over 6, Badshas tail enders had to bat and score who has not got much match practice due to top order performing well in all previous matches. Badshas needed 51 in last 18 balls and 37 in last over and kept losing wickets. In the last over Faisal hit two consecutive sixers to bring few cheers to Badshas supporters. Good fielding and taking important catches really made the difference for ICGC warriors and few bad overs from Badshas bowlers costed them the match. ICGC Warriors played their all games with tremendous discipline throughout except for losing one match against Champions at league stage. All there games were must win for qualifying and the way team handled pressure in each match made it a better team. Well deserved victory for ICGC Warriors. Good lessons to be drawn from this final match defeat for Badshas. |
