Mumbai, April 06, 2008: The 2nd Finals of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge featured the hosts Hyderabad Heroes take on the Lahore Badshahs at the magnificent ICL facility, Lal Bahadur Stadium, Hyderabad. A close encounter was expected, especially looking into the formidable record that the hosts have enjoyed playing on their home turf & their big upset win over the formidable Badshahs in the 1st final. Jeff Dujon in his pitch report predicted a track with good bounce & carry making it conducive for stroke play. Inzamam won the toss and elected to bat.
The Badshahs opened their account in a do or die battle with Imran Nazir & Taufeeq Umar. It was a positive start from the Badshahs with both the openers playing their strokes taking the score to 25 for no loss at the end of the 3rd over. Harris brought on the young Absolem in the 5th over & he responded immediately, drawing first blood with the wicket of Umar. At the end of the 5th over, the Badshahs were well placed at 38/1. Harris introduced spin from both ends at the start of the 7th over & both Boje and Reddy were relatively successful in pulling back the Badshahs scoring machine. The pressure finally resulted in Reddy getting rid of the dangerous Nazir for a well made 30. At the half way mark of their innings the match was fascinatingly poised at the Badshahs score of 65/2.
Reddy was bowling beautifully in front of his packed home ground stadium & got the big break, trapping the great Inzi, in front of the wicket in the 12th over leaving the Badshahs in a bit of a bother at 75/3. Hyderabad’s superhero of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge, Stuart Binny got into the act in his first over sending back the dangerous Farhat in the 14th over. At the end of the 15th over, the Badshahs were placed at 96/4. Binny was thriving in the big match situation with 3 wickets, bringing about a mini collapse in the Badshahs middle order, leaving them reeling at 98/6.
With two overs to go the Badshahs were struggling at 111/6 with Azhar Mahmood holding the key for any chance of a final onslaught. However, there was no momentum whatsoever and the Badshahs folded their innings 130/9 in their allotted 20overs.
Brief Scores: Lahore Badshahs 130/9 in 20overs (Nazir 30, Farhat30, Binny 3/9, IS. Reddy 4/19)