Sparkling Imran Nazir century ICL20 2008

November'2008: The third final of three finals for the ICL 20s Indian Championship featured defending champions Hyderabad Heroes, take on the mighty Lahore Badshahs for top honors at Sardar Patel stadium Ahmedabad. It was the mighty Lahore Badshahs who in the end conquered the final Fortier in ICL, thrashing their arch rivals Hyderabad Heroes by a comprehensive margin of 8 wickets, with 6 overs to spare.

The highlight of the win was a sparkling unbeaten century from the dashing Imran Nazir plundering 111 runs off only 44 balls; studded with 7 fours & 11 mighty sixes. The Knock also too Imran Nazir to the top of the leading scorer list for the tournament. Imran Nazir was fittingly declared man of the match. Nazir also won the Haywards Soda Solid Six award of US $10,000 for longest six of that went 140mts in the same match.

Chirs Harris won the all important toss and elected to bat. Lahore came out with a serious purpose in the field, with Azhar Mahmood striking early; castling the experienced Jimmy Maher in the 2nd over with only 8 runs on the board. Harris promoted the talented Anirudh Singh up the order at the no3 position. The move however did not pay dividends, as double strikes from the impressive Shahid Nazir in form of Singh & Razzaq’s wicket, had the defending champions in a bit of a bother at 58/3 at the end of the 7th over.

Inzamam introduced his premiere spinner Saqlain in the 10th over who struck immediately with the big wicket of the inform Khaleel out for a well made 45 off 25 balls, including 7 fours and 1 six. The half way mark of their innings had the defending champions placed precariously at 76/4. Rayudu’s wicket as Shahid Nazir’s third scalp of the match set the stage for Boje & Binny to play the resurrection role for the Hyderabad Heroes. 19 runs off the 14th Saqlian over, took the score to 120/5, brining Hyderabad back in the match.

The pacy Sami however had other plans, getting Boje to nick one to a diving Humayun Farhat, ending the 42 run partnership for the 6th wicket in the 15th over. With 5 overs to go Hyderabad were placed at 125/6 needing a major onslaught in the death overs to set up a decent target. The crafty Lahore bowling machinery was at its best, not giving any leeway to the Hyderabad batsmen, restricting their batting scorecard to 158/7 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Lahore chase got off to a blistering start with Nazir going hammer & tongs after Razzaq to plunder 24 runs off the first over. Nazir was carrying out a complete carnage on the Hyderabad bowing brining the Lahore fifty off only 20 balls in the 4th over. It was a Nazir show all the way at the start of the Lahore innings; brining his half century off only 16 balls in the 5th over; studded with 4 fours and five sixes. The 100 run partnership for the opening wicket came about in only the 8th over with the defending champions. The 108 run partnership was finally ended by Razzaq with the wicket of Farhat out for a well made 28 in the 9th over.

Nazir was toying with the Hyderabad bowling bringing about his maiden ICL hundred off only 42 balls; studded with 7 fours and 10 sixes. Imran went on the finish the match with his unbeaten knock off 111 coming off only 44 balls, made of Champagne stuff; single handedly finishing the match in only the 14th over.

Brief scores: Hyderabad Heroes 158/7 in 20 overs (Khaleel 45, Binny 25, Shahid Nazir 3/29) lost by 8 wickets to Lahore Badshahs 160/2 in13.5 overs (Imran Nazir 111*, Farhat 28, Boje 1/25) Scorecard.