Oh! What An Upset?

My eyes couldn't just believe it!It was as though the curse for the Lahore Badshahs reached its peak on Sunday night,which put an abrupt end to the much awaited cheers by the crowd out there who had all come there to cheer the well deserved Lahore Badshahs who were thought to emerge as ultimate winners of the trophy.But,sadly that was not to be.

Despite a 5 wicket haul by Naved ul Hasan and the match ending up in a thrilling tie,there were 6 balls without a batsman at the other end to decide the fate of the Badshahs.No doubt!The match was between the top two teams of the tournament, with each of them having lost only to each other and outperforming the rest.But,my vote was always for the Badshahs,who were a balanced team unlike the Heroes-who had one or a couple of match winners and were found to succumb under pressure. This was evident when Abdul Razzaq was found to bowl 3 no balls costing 4 runs in the last over of the first finals-when Lahore Badshahs needed 12 runs of 6 balls with 4 wickets in hand.

It is the second instance where the man of the match went to the losing side in case of a T20 tie,after the famous bowl out between India & Pakistan in the inaugural T20 world cup.

And one more thing that I could find was that the second edition of the ICL was much better than the may be last five editions of ICC world cup,which saw minnows like Bangladesh,Zimbabwe,Ireland,Kenya and even the West Indies making it big when compared to teams like India,Pakistan South Africa...some due to politics(as in case of the Zim v SA in 1999 & SL v Ken in 2003),some due to under estimating their opponents(like Pak v Ire & Ind v Ban in 2007,WI v Ken in 1996)...to name a few.

If fans could turn up to support these ICL games,there could be no doubt in having an exciting game of cricket ahead in future.Wat Say?

Indian Cricket League:Lahore Badshahs-A Perfect Finalist

On Thursday,after the Indian batting debacle in Ahmedabad against South Africa,there was something else for cricket fans to watch out for.This is the private cricket tournament in Indian Cricket League,which hosted the match between Lahore Badshahs vs Kolkata Tigers,which was the perfect semi finals and not ought to be missed.Both the teams put up a thorough fight and alas!there had to be just one winner of the match who would book a place in the finals of the second edition of the tournament.

The winner was off course Lahore Badshahs,who are till now the only team to be undefeated in the tournament.A loss to these Lahore Badshahs in the semis would have been nothing but injustice to the same.But,even the Kolkata Tigers were not found to compromise either.Even they were found to fight fire with fire,riding high on Lance Klusner's 57 ball 91,but eventually fell short by a small of 7 runs.

But,according to my opinion,it was the Lahore Badshahs who deserved a place in the finals-not only because they have been unbeaten throughout the tournament,but also posted a decent total which was not of one,but a contribution of the entire team,unlike in the Kolkata Tigers' case where only Lance Klusner was found to blast,while others were only clapping their hands to finally end their campaign.

As the trend goes,I would bet on the Lahore Badshahs who in my opinion would emerge as the champions of the second edition of the Indian Cricket League.