ICL: Hyderabad Heroes win first final

Panchkula (Haryana): Hyderabad Heroes pulled off a close win in the first of-the-three finals against fancied Lahore Badshahs in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) Twenty20s Grand Championship at the Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium here Friday evening.

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Requiring 12 runs in the final over of the T20 match, the Lahore Badshahs could not come good at the final frontier despite a valiant 43 runs from 48 balls by opener Taufeeq Umar who remained unbeaten till the end.

Except for a quick-fire 34 runs from just 16 balls by Azhar Mahmood, no other Lahore Badshahs batsmen could impress. The team finished at 137 for 9 wickets in their 20 overs.

Badshahs skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq failed with the bat, scoring just 8 runs. Abdul Razzak took 3 Badshahs wickets.

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The Heroes earlier set a target of 144 runs from the allotted 20 overs for the Badshahs after good contributions from the top-order batsmen. Amitabh Rayudu scored 44 runs from 42 balls while opened J.P. Mehar scored 33 from 34 balls.

With this win, Hyderabad Heroes lead the three-match finals 1-0.

The next two finals will be played at Hyderabad on April 6 and 7.