Asia Lions lift Legends League Cricket trophy

 Asia Lions lift Legends League Cricket trophy

The final match of LLC 2023 was played at Asian Town Cricket Stadium, Doha, Qatar on March 20 , it was played between World Giants and Asia Lions. World Giants won 3 matches and were at the top of the points table, while Asia Lions won 2 matches and were in second position.

The toss was 30 minutes before the start of the match i.e. at 07:30 pm.  The World Giants was captained by Shane Watson in the match while the Asia Lions was captained by Shahid Afridi

Final Team Announced By Captains 

 World Giants :

• Morne van Wyk (wk)
•  Shane Watson (c)
•  Ross Taylor
•  Jacques Kallis
•  Lendl Simmons
•  Paul Collingwood
•  Samit Patel
•  Monty Panesar
•  Tino Best
•  Chris Mpofu
•  Brett Lee

Asia Lions :

• Upul Tharanga (wk) Tillakaratne Dilshan
• Shahid Afridi (c)
•  Mohammad Hafeez
•  Asghar Afghan
•  Thisara Perera
•  Abdur Razzak
•  Misbah-ul-Haq
•  Sohail Tanvir
•  Paras Khadka
•  Abdul Razzaq

Shane Watson Captain of World Giants was leading the side and he won the toss and opted to bat first

Shane Watson won the toss and elected to bat with Morne van Wyk and Lendl Simmons opening the innings. Asia Lions ’ left- arm spinner Abdur Razzak came to bowling, giving away just three runs. Left- arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir, generated good speed off the wicket and the first boundary of the match came from Simmons bat, who edged through the gap. Razzak struck with the third ball of the third over to dismiss van Wyk, who, while going for a cut, inside- edged it onto his wicket for a duck. Razzak also took the  precious wicket of skipper Shane Watson with the fifth delivery,  enmeshing  him leg-  ahead through an arm ball for a duck.

   Ross Taylor and Kallis scored singles off Mohammad Hafeez’s seventh over. Afridi came to ball in eighth over, gave down only five runs. Razzak bowled his final over astonishingly beating Kallis  constantly, and giving away just two runs. Then Afridi too bowled a good tenth over for just five runs, World Giants could muster only 49 for 3 at the halfway mark.   In the 15th over, Taylor and Kallis took one boundary each off Shahid Afridi. World Giants were still ten runs short of the 100- run mark. Kallis reached his half- century in 41 balls lifting Perera for a six tomid-wicket. Perera struck with the third ball of the 17th over to clean bowl Taylor for 32. The  couple’s 92 runs in 11.1 overs literally lifted World Giants to a good total.

 

 End of the first innings  

To start the innings, Asia Lions ’ trusted openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga began to stroke easily. Dilshan hit Samit Patel’s alternate and third deliveries for boundaries while Tharanga hit the fifth ball for a six over long- on. They took 16 runs off the first over.   Asia Lions took the game completely away from World Giants with Dilshan too smashing Stylish for a boundary tomid-wicket and reaching his half- century in 32 balls with eight boundaries. The 115 runs partnership ended when Lee had Tharanga clean bowled for 57. Asia Lions needed only 33 runs in the last ten overs. Dilshan was bowled out by Samit Patel for 58 when only 16 runs were  demanded for the victory in 41 balls. Mohammad Hafeez and Misbah Ul Haq steered their team to victory remaining unbeaten with nine runs each.   Asia Lions beat World Giants by 7 wickets.  

 

 Player of the Match - Abdur Razzak

 Player of the series - Upul Tharanga  

                            👑

 World Giants  vs  Asia Lions