Muscat: On a windy and cold evening, Asia Lions coasted to a six-wicket victory over the World Giants in the Legends League Cricket at the beautiful Al Amerat Cricket Ground.
Thanks to a 88-run partnership from 54 balls by the Sri Lankan pair of Upul Tharanga (63) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (52), they chased down a stiff target of 206 with five balls to spare.
Asian Lions opener Dilshan smashed three sixes and two fours in his 32-ball knock, while Tharanga scored 63 in 43 balls, which included seven boundaries and two sixes. The duo took control of the game after Kamran Akmal (14) was dismissed in the fourth over.
Mohammad Hafeez made 27 from 13 balls when 56 runs were needed off 24 balls after Tharanga was run out by Imran Tahir.
Asghar Afghan (14 from 7 balls) and Lions skipper Misbah-Ul-Haq (19 from 11 balls) hammered Ryan Sidebottom for two sixes and two boundaries in his over that yielded 22 runs to virtually seal the game.
Earlier, Kevin O’Brien had set the stage on fire for World Giants with a gorgeous 95 from 46 balls (7×6, 7×4) to score 205/7 after Lions opted to bowl.
The ex-Irish cricketer held their innings together after former English batsman Kevin Pietersen (14) was out cheaply in the third over. O’Brien scored 95 but Muttiah Muralitharan got him out five runs short of a century.
Sri Lankan pacer Nuwan Kulasekara returned with a tidy spell of 4-1-17-2, while Hafeez claimed two wickets.
“As a team, we were looking for a win and we finally got that, it’s a wonderful feeling,” Hafeez, said.
“Above everything, I personally enjoyed the game to play with the top stars of World cricket,” Hafeez added.
