Southern Superstars claim Legends League Cricket 2024 title in Srinagar

SRINAGAR: Southern Superstars defeated Konark Suryas Odisha in a hard-fought summit clash that was decided in the Super Over to become the Legends League Cricket 2024 champions here on Thursday.

The game was watched by more than 30,000 spectators at the Bakshi Stadium here and a similar number of people were waiting outside the venue during the game, the organisers said in a statement.

For Southern Superstars, Shreevats Goswami and Martin Guptill opened the innings after Odisha elected to bowl.

They faced an early setback when Goswami was dismissed by Diwesh Pathania without scoring any runs. Guptill was then joined by Hamilton Masakadza in the middle.

The duo added 76 runs for the second wicket before Guptill was dismissed for 27 from 25 balls. Masakadza, along with Pawan Negi, added 68 runs for the third wicket.

While Masakadza scored 83 from 58 balls, Negi made 33 from 24 balls as Southern Superstars posted 164/6 in 20 overs.

For Konark Suryas Odisha, Dilshan Munaweera was the pick of the bowlers who took 4/9 in three overs. Diwesh Pathania (1/19) and Irfan Pathan (1/22) took one wicket each in the innings.

Chasing a target of 165, Richard Levi and Dilshan Munaweera opened the innings for Odisha. While Munaweera scored 11 from nine balls, Levi added 16 from 11 balls.

Kevin O’Brien managed to add 17 from 24 balls before Yusuf Pathan’s power-hitting lit up the match. He scored 85 from 38 balls and single-handedly took the game till the last ball.

Two runs were needed off the last ball but Yuusf could only manage to score one before being run out.

For Southern Superstars, Hamid Hassan (2/28), Abdur Razzak (2/31), Chaturanga de Silva (2/19) and Pawan Negi (2/32) took two wickets each in the innings.

The match was tied and entered into a super over where Konark Suryas Odisha batted first. Yusuf and Irfan came to bat, putting on board 14 runs from six balls.

Guptill and Negi came to bat for Southern Superstars. Guptill struck back to back sixes in the first two balls. Although Diwesh Pathania dismissed him, Southern Superstars chased down the target in just five balls.

Over 120 players, including the West Indies star Chris Gayle and England’s Ian Bell, as well Indian stars Irfan Pathan and Shikhar Dhawan, competed in the tournament. (PTI)