By IANS
Panchkula (Haryana) : Inzamam-ul Haq sizzled with a half-century to lead Lahore Badshahs to a five-wicket victory over defending champions Chennai Superstars in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 tournament here.
Electing to bat, Superstars put up 157 for six in their stipulated 20 overs before Badshahs romped home in the last over at Tau Devi Lal stadium here Tuesday night.
Superstars lost the wickets of Ian Harvey and Russel Arnold cheaply before Hemang Badani and Australian Michael Bevan (56) joined forces to do a repair job. But the partnership was broken with Badani run out in the 14th over leaving the Superstars at 82 for three.
Skipper R. Satish also perished early trying to increase the run rate, but ultimately Bevan played a lone hand in rescuing the innings.
Badshahs got some early jolts while chasing and Tamil Kumaran got the first break for the Superstars, rattling the stumps of Imran Farhat (20). Satish brought on his most successful bowler Thiru Kumaran as first change and he responded by getting the dangerous Imran Nazir and Hasan Raza out in consecutive deliveries.
The Badshahs were left tottering at 32 for three and then 47 for four. It could have been worse for the Badshahs if only Inzamam was not let off with a stumping chance.
Naved Latif (41) and Inzamam took the score to 107 for four and brought the victory margin down to 51 off 30 balls. Inzamam then cut loose and dispatched Harvey for some big hits in the 16th over but the Australian struck back getting the wicket of Latif in the same over.
But the class of Inzamam saw the Badshahs romp home in the last over.
Brief scores: Chennai Superstars 157/6 (Michael Bevan 56, Hemang Badani 30, J. Syed Mohammed 15, Rana Naved 2/19 ); Lahore Badshahs 158/5 (Inzamam-ul Haq 50, Naved Latif 41, Thiru Kumaran 3/22).