Lahore Lions eye semifinal berth
Bursting with undoubted talent and brimming with excitement at the prospect of making the semifinals
By : ravi chakravarthy
Update: 2014-09-30 03:45 GMT
Bengaluru: It’s ironical that Lahore Lions, whose participation in the Champions League T20 looked remote are now in with a distinct possibility of knocking out one of the most successful IPL teams in its seven-year history.
The first Pakistan team to make the tournament proper, Mohammad Hafeez’s side, bursting with undoubted talent and brimming with excitement at the prospect of making the semifinals of the CLT20, have the chance to edge out former champs Chennai Super Kings to the second spot from Group ‘A’.
In a strange twist of fate, the encounter between the Super Kings and Lions was abandoned without a ball being bowled on Thursday last and with the Super Kings finishing off their engagements with a clinical victory over the Perth Scorchers, their progress or exit depends on the Lions, who take on the Australian side in the last set of group encounters on Tuesday at the M. Chinnaswamy side before the semifinals in Hyderabad on Thursday.
To start off, the Lions need to win against Scorchers. Having won one match, against the Dolphins after the loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders while picking up two from the rained-out game against the Super Kings, the Lions have given themselves the opportunity of making the last four.
Perched third on the table behind leaders KKR (12) and the Super Kings (10) with six points, the Lions, who have an inferior run-rate of +0.255 compared to the Super Kings’ +0.945 have their target in place.
The equation before them when they take on the Scorchers will be ideally to chase and knock down target, whatever it may be, in 14.3 overs. In case of the toss going against them, the Lions will have to defend zealously and ensure a minimum margin of 47 runs.