AWAN Warriors scored a thrilling four-run victory over Bahrain Super Giants yesterday to storm into the final of the Coca-Cola Twenty20 Bahrain Premier League (BPL) at Isa Town Cricket Ground.
By contrast, Intex Lions scored a convincing seven-wicket victory over Four Square Challengers in the other semi-final to set up a final clash with the Warriors next Friday.
Faiz Ahmad and Imran Butt were the architects of Warriors’ last-ball victory as the former set the pace batting first with a fine 62 (41 balls, 4 four, 2 six) while the latter gave them a flying start defending a modest 144 by claiming the first three wickets with just 28 runs on the board.
Choosing to bat first, the Warriors started tentatively losing both the openers for 22 runs. But Yasser Nazir (17, 25 balls, 1 four) and Ahmad studied the innings adding 35 runs for the third wicket.
They lost another wicket after adding just five runs to the total. However, Ahmad stood rock solid at one end and added 36 runs for the fifth wicket with Malik Hassan (22, 24 balls, 2 four).
Battle
Ahmad, who later won the man-of-the-match award, continued to wage a lone battle and was seventh batsman out with the score a respectable 137 before the Warriors reached 144 by the end of their 20 overs.
It was then the turn of Butt to ensure Warriors retained the grip on the match by claiming the first three wickets to fall.
Though Shikhdar Billa kept the Super Giants in the match with a fluent and unbeaten 67 (53 balls, 7 four, 1 six), the lack of support from the other end saw his heroics go in vain.
Billa added 42 runs for the fifth wicket with Mohammed Saquib (23, 15 balls, 1 four, 1 six) and a brilliant 64 for the seventh with Satya V (16, 14 balls, 1 four) but that as as agonisingly close as they came to victory and fell short by five runs.
The second semi-final lacked the drama of the first as Intex Lions made light of chasing 136 for victory as they reached 139 with 12 balls and seven wickets to spare.
Man-of-the-match Prashanth Kurup planned the chase with a compact knock (56, 39 balls, 10 four) while Wasif Iqbal and Tahir Dar completed the task with an unbeaten 18 (22 balls, 1 four) and 14 (10 balls, 2 four) respectively.
Earlier, Thilina was the top scorer for the Challengers (37, 31 balls, 2 four) as they reached 135 for nine in their 20 overs. Sameer Zulfiqar (24, 29 balls, 1 four), Kashif Rana (21, 14 balls, 4 four) and Umer Toor (30, 19 balls, 3 four, 1 six) were the other main contributors.
Imran Javed (3-27) and Babar Ali (2-20) were the main wickets takers for the Lions.
The matches were covered by Bahrain TV and was also available on YouTube streaming.
The BPL is the first-ever franchise based T20 league to be held in Bahrain and it is being organised by Exelon and KHK under the patronage of Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.