SRINAGAR: In a thrilling final, Southern Superstars won a nail-biting encounter to become the Legends League Cricket 2024 champions. They defeated Konark Suryas Odisha in the super over at the Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar on Thursday.
After winning the toss, Konark Suryas Odisha elected to bowl first. For Southern Superstars, Shreevats Goswami and Martin Guptill opened the innings. They faced an early setback as Diwesh Pathania dismissed Goswami without scoring any runs. Guptill was then joined by Hamilton Masakadza in the middle. The duo added 76 runs for the second wicket before Guptill was dismissed for 27 from 25 balls. Masakadza along with Pawan Negi added 68 runs for the third wicket. While Masakadza scored 83 from 58 balls, Pawan Negi made 33 from 24 balls. Chaturanga de Silva scored 9 from 8 balls. At the end of the innings, he posted a score of 164/6 in 20 overs.
For Konark Suryas Odisha, Dilshan Munaweera was the pick of the bowlers who took 4/9 in 3 overs. Diwesh Pathania (1/19) and Irfan Pathan (1/22) took one wicket each in the innings.
Chasing a target of 165 on the board, Richard Levi and Dilshan Munaweera opened the innings for Konark Suryas Odisha. While Munaweera scored 11 from 9 balls, Levi added 16 from 11 balls. Kevin O’Brien managed to add 17 from 24 balls. Then it was Yusuf Pathan’s show in the match. He scored 85 from 38 balls. He single handedly took the game till the last ball. When 2 runs were needed from the last ball, Yuusf could only manage to score one run before getting runout. Konark Suryas Odisha scored 164/9 in 20 overs.
For Southern Superstars,Hamid Hassan (2/28), Abdur Razzak (2/31), Chaturanga de Silva (2/19) and Pawan Negi (2/32) took two wickets each in the innings.
As the match got tied and entered into the super over, Konark Suryas Odisha batted first in it. Yusuf Pathan and Irfan Pathan came to bat for Konark Suryas Odisha. They managed to score 14 runs from 6 balls which included a six from Yusuf and a boundary from the bat of Richard Levi.
With 14 runs on the board, Martin Guptill and Pawan Negi came to bat for Southern Superstars. Guptill took the match away with two back-to-back sixes in the first two balls. Although Diwesh Pathania responded with the wicket of Guptil but Southern Superstars chased down the target in just 5 balls. (Kashmir Life)