Harris leads Heroes to ICL triumph
While the Lashings World XI are in their off-season, several of the playing squad keep themselves occupied by taking part in the Indian Cricket League. In all, there are 17 current or former Lashings World XI players involved in the league, half a dozen of whom are either captain or coach of their sides.
The recent ICL 20’s Championship came to a close yesterday (Sunday 6th April) with the Hyderabad Heroes (skippered by Lashings vice-captain Chris Harris and containing 2005 South Africa tour squad member Justin Kemp) taking on the Lahore Badshahs, who were skippered by Inzamam ul-Haq (who played for Lashings as long ago as 2001) and contained Lashings World XI veterans Azhar Mahmood (2007), Mushtaq Ahmed (2005 South Africa Tour) and Saqlain Mushtaq (2005) in a best-of-three encounter.
The first final saw the previously unbeaten Badshahs lose out to the Heroes by just 6 runs, but the second match was an altogether closer deal as the teams finished with 130 runs each from their 20 overs. This meant a bowl-out to decide the winner of the match and with the Heroes already a match up the bowl-out could also potentially settle the entire championship. Nicky Boje struck first for the Heroes, then young Indian spinner PIS Reddy put the Heroes 2-0 up. A further miss from the opposition gave Captain Harris the chance to seal the both the match and the tournament in the space of one ball – all he had to do was hit the stumps. Fortunately he held his nerve and scored a direct hit on the stumps to take the Hyderabad Heroes to victory in the second ICL 20s tournament.
Incidentally, the first ICL 20/20 tournament also heavily featured past and present Lashings World XI players and was won by the Chennai Superstars, who featured Russel Arnold in their side, beating the Chandigarh Lions, a team skippered by Chris Cairns and featuring new Lashings signing Dinesh Mongia.
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