Muhammad Hafeez led from the front with a blazing 67 as Lahore Lions trounced Sri Lanka’s Southern Express by 55 runs in their Champions League Twenty20 qualifier, in Raipur on Tuesday, to keep alive their chances of making the main draw of the tournament.
Put in to bat, Hafeez smashed a 40-ball 67 to power the Pakistan T20 champions to 164 for six in 20 overs. In reply, Southern Express could muster up just 109 in 18 overs.
Medium-pacer Aizaz Cheema (3-15) was the destroyer-in-chief, as Lahore registered their second victory in three matches in the four-team qualifier.
Captain Jehan Mubarak top-scored with 35 for the Sri Lankans.
Sharing the new ball with Hafeez (1-26), Cheema derailed Southern Express with three early wickets. The Sri Lankans never really recovered from those jolts.
Cheema had Kusan Perera caught behind for 18 and cleaned up Danushka Gunathilaka (0) to be on a hat-trick in the fourth over of the innings.
When Tillakaratne Sampath was lbw for 18, Express were in deep trouble.
Mubarak and Angelo Perera bail the team out of trouble with a 44-run fourth-wicket partnership before off-spinner Adnan Rasool (2-32) sent the Express captain back in the dug-out in the 12th over.
There was no respite for the Lankans as Rasool struck again after a delivery to clean up Maharoof for a duck.
Left-arm pacer Riaz (2-20) then struck twice in the next over to flatten Express' chances by sending back Perera and Prasanna (4).
Medium-pacer Imran Ali (1-14) joined the party as he cleaned up Dilruwan Perera (3) in the 15th over.
Hafeez, who could do no wrong in the evening, then got Ishan Jayaratne out for 18 and and Lakshan Rangika was run-out via a Riaz-Akmal combination as Express bowed out of the competition after an embarrassing third defeat in the qualifiers.
Earlier, the openers provided a brisk start as the Lions scored 40 runs in the powerplays. Left-handed opener Umar Siddiq, though, lost his wicket to the last delivery of the sixth over. Trying to dab at a rising Farveez Maharoof (3-28) bouncer, he was caught behind for 18.
Maharoof continued the good work by sending back Ahmed Shehzad (29 off 21 balls) and Nasir Jamshed (1) in an over to stop the Lahore surge.
While Shehzad, who was looking dangerous till then, tried a silly-looking 'dilscoop' against Maharoof, Jamshed was guilty of fishing at an away-going delivery and caught at slip.
Saad Nasim (31) and Hafeez, who registered his 22nd T20 fifty, then stitched a superb 75-run fourth-wicket partnership that gave Lahore Lions the perfect platform to finish off on a high in the final overs.
After playing the waiting game between overs 10 and 15, Hafeez cut loose in the 16th over as leg-spinner Seekkuge Prasanna (0-35) came at the wrong end of the stick.
Hafeez hit a boundary and three straight sixes to help the side get 25 runs in the over.
Nasim, though, fell to Charith Jayampathi (1-45) in the 17th over, caught by Ishan Jayaratne, trying a hit over long-on.
Joined in by Umar Akmal (11 not out), Hafeez continued his aggressive play, hitting fours and sixes, to help the side fetch 75 runs from the last five overs.
Medium-pacer Jayaratne (1-29) finally got Hafeez out in the final over of the innings but the damage was already done.
With Wahab Riaz (1) wad also run-out in the final over, as Lahore scored just nine from it.
