Fifties from Niresh Fernando and Kashif Ijaz helped Lions CC to a maiden President’s Cup title with an eight-wicket win over Al Fara’a.
Chasing 131, Lions reached the target with 15 balls remaining posting a total of 134.
Fernando (52) and Ijaz (53no) put on a 88-run partnership for the second wicket before the former went at 92/2.
Salman Faris (17) maintained the run-rate and with Ijaz steered them home.
Earlier, Al Fara’a, who elected to bat, saw four batsmen run-out as Pabalu Silva finished with figures of 3-16. Only four players reached double figures with Babir Basheer (42) top-scoring.
Lions CC captain Arunalu De Silva was delighted with the team’s first title, especially having missed out on the knockout stage in the FastLink Mobile T20 tournament.
“It’s a dream to win this tournament. In the previous four tournaments we had finished runners-up so we were very determined to win," said De Silva. “We are over the moon and so happy. It was a good collective performance with every player contributing to the success.”
De Silva said the four run-outs proved to be the turning point.
“They were vital. Al Fara’a were beginning to build partnerships and we broke them four times due to our fantastic fielding.
“We started off very cautiously after we lost the toss. But Silva kept changing his bowling and that troubled the batsmen.”
