Hyderabad Heroes vs Lahore Badshahs 1st Final: Preview, Live Score
Hyderabad Heroes will face Lahore Badshahs in the first final of ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09 tomorrow (12 November 2008) at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, India. This will be first of the best of three final in which Hyderabad Heroes and Lahore Badshahs will take on each other for the title of the second tournament of the season. Both teams have dominated the tournament so far with Hyderabad Heroes and Lahore Badshahs finishing 1st and 2nd in the point table of group stage with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Both Lahore Badshahs and Hyderabad Heroes easily won their respective semi final matches and reached the final. The good thing about the best of three final is that two best teams of the ongoing tournament have reached the final. Both sides have some excellent players who could put on a match winning performance in the final. Lahore Badshahs defeated Chennai Superstars by 6 wickets in the first semi final of the tournament, while Hyderabad Heroes defeated Royal Bengal Tigers by 3 wickets in the second semi final.
Another interesting fact is that Lahore Badshahs and Hyderabad Heroes faced each other in the opening match of the ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09 and the tournament is going to finish off with Hyderabad Heroes vs Lahore Badshahs final match. In the group stage match, Hyderabad won by 18 (VJD method) runs against Lahore following a power blackout problem. No doubt, Lahore must have felt bad for the result as they had enough chance to win the match. Now, Lahore has got the chance to take revenge of that defeat in the final of the tournament.
As I earlier mentioned that both sides have some excellent players. For Hyderabad Heroes, South African Nicky Boje has been playing a crucial role both with the bat and ball. In fact, Nicky Boje is the highest run scorer as well as the second highest wicket taker for Hyderabad Heroes so far in the tournament. He picked up 12 wickets with his left arm spin, and his excellent batting form saw him scoring 229 runs in 9 matches. His all round performance has placed him in the top ten lists for both batsmen and bowlers. So, Boje will have a big role to play for Hyderabad in the final match too.
Hyderabad Heroes have some other important players like Stuart Binny, Abdul Razzaq, Inder Shekar Reddy and Captain Chris Harris. Stuart Binny played a match winning innings of 45 in the semi final that helped Hyderabad to defeat Royal Bengal Tigers. Binny has scored 212 runs from 9 games, becoming the second highest scorer for his team so far. Top order batsmen Ambati Rayudu started the tournament with a match winning 58 in the opening match against Lahore, but he could not continue the momentum in the later stage. However, still he could manage to get 193 runs from 9 matches. All rounder Abdul Razzaq has been pretty much successful both with his bat as well as with his medium pace bowling. Razzaq is the fourth highest wicket taker as well as fourth highest run scorer for Hyderabad with 8 wickets and 191 runs. So, like Boje, Razzaq can also contribute to Hyderabad both as a batsman as well as a bowler.
Inder Shekar Reddy is the most successful bowler for Hyderabad with 13 wickets. The left arm bowler has a great role to play for Hyderabad in the final. Captain Chris Harris scored 110 runs so far in the tournament and he could play an all round role for Hyderabad in the final match too. I can remember Hyderabad’s match against Dhaka Warriors in which Harris’ excellent batting led Hyderabad to clinch a narrow victory. Hyderabad will look for a good start from their openers Jimmy Maher and Ibrahim Khaleel, who have 162 and 123 runs respectively so far in the tournament. Overall, I think, Hyderabad heroes has a very strong batting line up which could find enough support from a balanced bowling attack. Two all rounders Nicky Boje and Abdul Razzaq have brought a much-needed balance in the squad.
There is an all rounder behind the success of Lahore Badshahs too. The all round performance of Naved-ul-Hasan has been instrumental behind Lahore’s excellent form of recent. Naved-ul-Hasan is currently leading the list of highest wicket takers of the tournament with 17 wickets in 8 matches. Moreover, his 171 runs so far in the tournament have come as a bonus for Lahore. With his hard-hitting batting in one down, Lahore has got someone who can speed up the run rate at the beginning of the innings. No doubt, he will have a big role to play for Lahore in the final match. Two openers Imran Nazir and Imran Farhat are in good form with 248 and 227 runs respectively so far. With Mohammad Yousuf bolstering the Lahore’s middle order, their batting line up looks stronger than ever. Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, who played a match winning innings of 62 in the semi final, carries a big responsibility in the middle order, while big hitter like Azhar Mahmood can play a big role in the lower middle order.
Lahore has a good bowling attack too. With 14 wickets, off spinner Saqlain Mushtaq is currently in the 4th place in the top ten wicket takers’ list. In the presence of Tahir Mughal, Shahid Nazir and Mohammad Sami and Naved-ul-Hasan, Lahore Lahore Badshahs’ pace attack looked very good too. So, I think, Lahore Badshahs also has an excellent squad.
Online Live Score and Updates
Here, I am giving some online live score and updates websites from where you can get the live score and updates of the match:
indiancricketleague
cricinfo
thetwenty20cup
cricket.sulekha
iclinformation
indiancricketleaguecricket
cricpoint
stickcricket
cricbuzz
Considering the strength of both Lahore Badshahs and Hyderabad Heroes, I think, it is going to be a pound for pound battle. Both the sides have enough chance to win the match. Picking up either team as favorite is not an easy task. So, I will not pick up any side as favorite. However, I think, the final match between Hyderabad Heroes and Lahore Badshahs is going to be highly competitive and hard-fought. Cricket fans is going to see an exciting match.
