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Raipur: After Lions putting up 164 for 6 against Southern Express, before the bowlers delivered to take the game by 55 runs, finishing the Qualifiers with two victories and pinning their hopes on a Northern Knights victory over Mumbai Indians. It was a vastly improved performance from the Lions, who had succumbed for 98 in their previous game against Northern Knights.
Southern Express needed partnerships to guide them through, but realistically never got going with the bat throughout the tournament. The repeated failures of Kusal Perera at the top meant they never got off to a strong start, and someone was always doing the repair job for them.
On this occasion they lost two wickets in an over thrice in their innings, and ended up with 109 all out in 18 overs, and without a victory in the competition, booked an early return home.
Aizaz Cheema removed the dangerous Perera (8) and Danushka Gunathilaka (0) off successive deliveries to reduce Southern Express to 27 for 2 in the fourth over, and the wicket of Tillakaratne Sampath in his next - although replays suggested the ball may have missed the leg stump - meant the Sri Lankan side had already fallen behind.
Captain Jehan Mubarak revived the innings with a bright 35 (26b, 4x4, 1x6) but went for a six too many and was caught in the deep off Adnan Rasool.
Farveez Maharoof's first-ball dismissal to Rasool meant Express had lost their big-name batsmen already, and Wahab Riaz returned to remove Angelo Perera and Seekkuge Prasanna in the same over, effectively putting the game out of reach for the Sri Lankan side.
Hafeez collected a wicket at the fag end of the innings to go with his 40-ball 67 earlier that had given the Lions the best chance of making the league stages of the competition, after being put into bat by Mubarak.
Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Siddiq - pushed up the order in place of Nasir Jamshed - gave them a quick start, a far cry from the shambles found themselves in against the Knights. Express hit back with Farveez Maharoof with first removing Siddiq (18) off the last ball of the Powerplay, before returning to scalp Shehzad (29) and Nasir Jamshed (1) in his next over.
Hafeez, however, negotiated and then stepped up the scoring rate by launching into Seekkuge Prasanna, taking 25 in one over that included three consecutive sixes.
Saad Nasim, who scored 58 out of the Lions' 98 all out against the Knights, shared 75 runs for the fourth wicket with Hafeez to bring them back on track, and Hafeez rocketed ahead by hammering 52 from the last 16 balls he faced.
Earlier, Southern Express win the toss and choose to bowl.
Lions are unchanged, while Express have made a couple of changes -- TM Sampath and Lakshman Rangika in for Yashodha Lanka and Sachith Pathirana.
Teams
Lahore Lions: Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez (Capt.), Umar Akmal (wk), Umar Siddiq, Saad Nasim, Imran Ali, Aizaz Cheema, Adnan Rasool, Asif Raza, Wahab Riaz
Southern Express: Kusal Perera (wk), Danushka Gunathilaka, Jehan Mubarak (Capt.), Charith Jayampathi, Ishan Jayaratne, Tillakaratne Sampath, Farveez Maharoof, Lakshman Rangika, Dilruwan Perera, Angelo Perera, Seekkuge Prasanna
Brief scores
Lahore Lions - 164/6 (Hafeez 67, Nasim 31, Maharoof 3-28)
Southern Express - 109 (Mubarak 35, Cheema 3-15, Riaz 2-20, Rasool 2-32)
Result - Lahore Lions won by 55 runs
Points - Lahore Lions 4, Southern Express 0
MOM - Mohammad Hafeez (Lahore Lions)
