CLT20 2014: Knights And Lions Progress To Group Stage

Tuesday sealed the fate of the four teams competing in the qualifiers of the Oppo CLT20 2014. Northern Knights advanced to the group stage comfortably chasing a modest total of 132 runs with 16 balls to spare. Lahore Lions put up a respectable total of 164/5, which in the end proved to be too much for Southern Express.

The defending champions Mumbai Indians were lacking in all aspects of the game; be it batting, bowling or fielding and Northern Knights continued their good run to come up on top in the qualifiers. The match turned out to be a one-sided affair from the very beginning. The openers of Mumbai Indians, Hussey and Simmons did not pick up from where they had left off in the last game. In fact, none of the specialist batsmen from the Mumbai team could cross the 15-run mark. In the end, it was up to captain Kieron Pollard to score a somewhat responsible 31. Bowlers Lasith Malinga and Shreyas Gopal scored a nifty 20 and 24 respectively in the slog overs to have a final score of 132/9.

Northern Knights made light of the score as they cruised to the target albeit with minor hiccups. When their first batsman, Anton Devcich got out, they had already posted 83 on the board. They completed the game in an easy manner, with man of the match Scott Styris scoring the winning runs.

In the other match featuring the Lahore Lions and Southern Express, the latter won the toss and elected to field. Lions had a good start with their opening pair putting 40 runs on board before Umar Siddiq fell to Maharoof. After that, their average run rate fell to less than 6 an over, their score being 89/3 in the 15^th over. Mohammad Hafeez, who played a captain's innings and was declared man of the match, helped the Lions score 75 runs in the last 5 overs. The team score progressed to a healthy 164/6.

The task at hand for Southern Express was not to just reach the target but to find it in less than 13 overs; so as to improve on their net run rate. But they crumpled under the pressure as the asking rate was always overwhelming for them. Lions' Bowler Aizaz Cheema dismissed 3 batsmen in 4 deliveries, which proved too costly for Express in the end.