By IANS
Panchkula (Haryana) : Hyderabad Heroes pulled off a close win in the first of the three finals against fancied Lahore Badshahs in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) Twenty20s Grand Championship at the Tau Devi Lal cricket stadium here Friday evening.
Requiring 12 runs in the final over of the T20 match, the Lahore Badshahs could not come good at the final frontier despite a valiant 43 runs from 48 balls by opener Taufeeq Umar who remained unbeaten till the end.
Except for a quick fire 34 runs from just 16 balls by Azhar Mahmood, no other Lahore Badshahs batsmen could impress. The team finished at 137 for 9 wickets in their 20 overs.
Badshahs skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq failed with the bat, scoring just 8 runs.
Abdul Razzak took 3 Badshahs wickets.
The Heroes earlier set a target of 144 runs from the allotted 20 overs for the Badshahs after good contributions from the top order batsmen. Amitabh Rayudu scored 44 runs from 42 balls while opened J.P. Mehar scored 33 from 34 balls.
With this win, Hyderabad Heroes lead the three-match finals 1-0.
The next two finals will be played at Hyderabad on April 6 and 7.
Brief Scores
Hyderabad Heroes: 143 for 6 wickets in 20 overs.
Lahore Badshahs: 137 for 9 wickets in 20 overs
Hyderabad Heroes won by 6 runs.