The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Imran Farhat on rampage

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Imran Farhat on rampage

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: Imran Farhat’s savage hitting and Azhar Mahmood’s twin-strike in the first over set up Lahore Badshahs’ easy 38–run victory over local favourite Chandigarh Lions in the Indian Cricket League’s Edelweiss 20s Challenge on Sunday.

In what was billed as the ‘final’ before the final between the two leading contenders in the eight-team competition, Badshahs called the shots to reach 187 for six in 20 overs.

When Lions began the chase, Mahmood sent back Mathew Elliott and Lou Vincent off the first three deliveries. Thereafter, Lions limped to 149 for seven with Mongia (35, 1 x 6, 4x 4) and Andrew Hall (32, 3 x 4) doing their bit to reduce the margin of defeat. This was Badshahs’ third victory in as many outings.

Big hitting

Before a holiday crowd that thronged the flood-lit Tau Devi Lal Stadium to its capacity of 6,000, Farhat ran amok during his hurricane knock of 94 off just 54 balls. Farhat hit eight sixes and four boundaries and his brother Humayun Farhat (47, 39b, 3 x 4) joined the party with three hits over the fence in their 101-run stand for the second wicket.

Farhat, whose first-ball boundary to fine-leg off Hall set the pace, and Imran Nazir (16, 12b, 4 x 4) brought up the half-century of the innings in just 5.2 overs.

Farhat treated Mongia, Tejinder Pal Singh and Vincent with disdain and hit them for sixes to make the most of being dropped by Daryl Tuffey and Vincent off successive overs.

Two records

Farhat also set two records in the competition. He became the highest individual scorer in an innings, ahead of Marvan Atapattu who scored an unbeaten 75 against Kolkata Tigers last December.

His eight sixes was the maximum by a batsman in an innings. Chris Cairns and Abdul Razzaq had hit seven sixes each in an innings in the inaugural edition.

However, Farhat missed the three-figure mark after glancing straight to Tejinder at short fine-leg. Off the next ball, Tuffey bowled Naved Latif to bring some cheer to his team-mates.

At one stage, Badshahs looked good to touch the 200-run mark but fell short once Farhat departed in the 16th over.

The scores: Lahore Badshahs 187 for six in 20 overs (Imran Farhat 94, Humayun Farhat 47, Imran Nazir 16, Inzamam-ul-Haq not out 12, Andrew Hall three for 30, Daryl Tuffey three for 38) bt Chandigarh Lions 149 for seven in 20 overs (Dinesh Mongia 35, Hall 32, Mahmood three for 30, Shahid Nazir two for 16).

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