The Lions roar

Manama : Skipper Tahir Dar smashed an unbeaten 74 off 44-balls yesterday to steer Intex Lions to a thrilling 7-wicket win over Awan Warriors to lift the first ever-rolling Coco Cola Bahrain Premier League T20 Crown. Intex Lions won the match with 5 wickets in hand scoring 142 runs.

Tahir struck three sixes and five boundaries in his blistering 44-ball 74 in Isa Town Cricket Ground well supported at the other end by Prashanth Kurupp with a solid knock of 50 of 54 balls. 

Bahrain Premier League is the first franchise based T20 cricket tournament organised by KHK Sports and Exelon under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

Coming into bat first, after winning the toss, Awan Warriors scored 141 in 20 over by losing five wickets. 

It was a shaky start for the Warriors with their top order managing to score only 34 runs as they lost four wickets in the process. 

Opening batsman Mohamed Ashraf walked back at the score of four. Imran Butt at the other end tried to regain the momentum by smashing a quick 20 from 21 balls. But it was the partnership of the middle order batsman Asim Masood and Hasan Javed that gave the Warriors a decent score to defend for their bowlers.

Asim Massod scored a brilliant, unbeaten, 49 of 36 balls with Hasan supporting at the other with a solid 34 of 33 balls. The partnership took the Warriors to a score of 141 at the end of 20 overs at the loss of 5 wickets, which later, however, turned out to be not enough. 

Chasing the target, Intex lions started slowly with Faizal Nazir and Junaid Niazi opening their innings. But Warriors bowlers were quick to produce some shivers in the Intex dressing room by claiming 3 wickets for just 13 runs. It was the partnership of skipper Tahir and Kurupp that recovered the team from the initial damage.