BAHRAIN Super Giants scored a thrilling five-wicket victory with five balls to spare against Intex Lions yesterday to top the group and book a berth in the semi-finals of the Coca-Cola Twenty20 Bahrain Premier League (BPL) at Isa Town Cricket Ground.
In other matches, overnight leaders Awan Warriors lost to bottom team SRam MRam Falcons by four wickets and Four Square Challengers beat Kalaam Knight Riders by 39 runs.
The, Giants, the Challengers and the Warriors finished with three victories from five matches and on six points each but the Giants topped the group on best net run rate (2.774) while the Challengers finished second (1.777) and the Warriors third (1.446).
The Lions, Riders and Falcons all finished on four points but the Lions finished fourth with a better net run rate to clinched the final semi-final spot.
Batting first, the Lions reached a challenging 144 with Junaid Niazi (38, 33 balls, 5 fours), Prashant Kurup (29, 23 balls, 4 fours) and Tahir Dar (36, 24 balls, 3 fours, 1 six) the main scores while Shyam claimed three wickets for 26 runs for the Giants.
In reply, Satya gave the chase the much needed impetus towards the end with a 16-ball 34 (1 four, three six) to lead the Giants to victory with five balls to spare.
Sikdar Billa (38, 37 balls, 5 fours) and Suhail (27, 30 balls, 2 six) were the other main scorers.
The semi-finals are set for March 9 and the final for March 16.
The BPL is the first-ever franchise based T20 league and it is being organised by Exelon and KHK under the patronage of Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Other results:
Awan Warriors 146-6 (Imran Butt 24, 23 balls, 2 four, Ashraf (33, 40 balls, 2 four, Yasir Nasir 43, 30 balls, 2 four, 2 six; Ali Rameez 2-20) lost to SRam, MRam Falcons 147-6 in 18.3 overs (Adnan Butt 23, 13 balls, 3 four, 1 six, Raffique (40, 30 balls, 4 four, 2 six; Khurram 2-19, Asim Masood 2-23, Qamar Saeed 2-31).
Four Square Challengers: 155-8 (Janaka 56, 48 balls, 3 four, 2 six; Thilina 31, 23 balls; Azeem 2-36) bt Kalam Knight Riders 116 all out in 18.5 overs (Guru Prasad 32, 27 balls, 4 four, 1 six; Thilina 3-29, Naveed 3-19)