Srinagar: The Southern Super Stars defeated Konak Suryas Odisha with one ball left in the Super Over thriller to lift the 2024 Legends League Cricket title on Wednesday at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar.
Yusuf Pathan made a blistering 85 from 38 balls (6 fours, 8 sixes) to lead Konak Suryas to a Super Over showdown that went down close to midnight local time.
Earlier, playing in front of a jam-packed crowd, Konak Suryas won the toss and decided to bowl first. Southern batter Hamilton Masakadza stabilized the inning with two formidable partnerships with Martin Guptill (27 off 25 balls) and Pawan Negi (33 off 24 balls) to help the team post a challenging 164/6 in 20 overs.
Masakadza played a brilliant knock in the final, scoring 83 off 58 balls, which included eight fours and five sixes. Apart from these three batters, no other Super Star managed to reach double figures. For Konak Suryas, Sri Lanka international Dilshan Munaweera was the pick of the bowlers, taking 4 wickets for 9 nine runs in 3 overs.
Chasing 165 in the final match of the 2024 Legends League Cricket, the Konak Suryas batters fell in a heap. The Odisha team was reduced to 37/3 after 5.2 overs and 91/6 after 14.1 overs. As the top-order collapse threatened to knock the Suryas out of the tournament, former India international Yusuf Pathan came to the rescue.
Pathan was in the mood to rain down big hits after getting dropped on 1 but found no help from the non-strikers end. He hit 28 runs off the penultimate over from Pawan Negi to get the Suryas within reach of the target, needing 7 runs in the final over.
Former Sri Lanka spinner Chaturanga de Silva bowled the 20th over and did well to bring the game to the final regular delivery of the tournament. With 2 runs needed to win from the last ball, Yusuf Pathan was run out while attempting a second run, leaving the score tied and the fixture heading to a super over. After 20 overs, Konak Suryas Odisha made 164/9.
In the Super Over, Southern Super Stars’ Afghan international pacer Hamid Hassan bowled to Konak Suryas Odisha’s Yusuf Pathan and Irfan Pathan. Yusuf hit a six in the over but was adjudged LBW on the fifth ball. Richard Levi stepped in and hit a four on the final delivery to give the Southern Super Stars a target of 14 runs to chase in their super over.
For the Super Stars, former New Zealand batter Martin Guptill and Pawan Negi opened the batting. Dinesh Pathania bowled the Super Over for Odisha and was smacked for two sixes in the first two balls by Guptill. Pathania made a comeback of sorts, bowling out the Kiwi batter. However, Chirag Gandhi and Pawan Negi managed to score the remaining two runs to hand the Southern Super Stars the 2024 LLC T20 Trophy.
