FAISALABAD - May 16, 2015: Umer Akmal steered Lahore Lions to the semi-final after they caged Multan Tigers in the Cool & Cool Presents Haier Super8 T20 Cup 2015 here at the Iqbal Stadium on Saturday.
Lions hammered 180 runs for the loss of three wickets and then contained Tigers till 165 for five to win the match by 15 runs.
Undefeated Umer missed his century by just five runs but played a pivotal role in Lions total. Umer smashed 11 boundaries and four sixes in his 49 balls innings and also shared an undefeated fourth wicket partnership with Nasir Jamshed, who made 33 off 27 balls.
Lions captain Kamran Akmal decided to bat first and made 31 runs for the first wicket with Ahmed Shahzad. Though Ahmed fell to Sadaif Mehdi, for just eight runs, but things started to fall in Lions favour. Coming at number three position, Mohammad Hafeez failed to judge Zulfiqar Babar attack and gave a catch to Mohammad Ali. After a brief partnership with his brother, Umer went on to score 129 runs alongside Nasir for the fourth wicket. Kamran made 28 runs in which he hit four fours while Ahmed and Hafeez scored eight runs each. Kamran was bowled by Naved Yasin, Sadaif Mehdi trapped Ahmed and Umer and Nasir completed the score and booked a place for Lions in the semi-final.
Later, Tigers failed to settle under the pressure of Lions 180 runs and kept tumbling one after the other. Aizaz Cheema made short work of the Tigers by containing them and in between took their key wickets of Sikandar Khan, Aamer Yamin and Mohammad Ali. But their key stars Kashif Mansha 26, Gulraiz Sadaf 33 and Naved Yasin 68 and Azeem 10 came among the runs. Mustafa Iqbal and Mohammad Hafeez shared one wicket each.
