Lahore Lions 164 for 6 (Hafeez 67, Maharoof 3-28) beat Southern Express 109 (Mubarak 35, Cheema 3-15, Riaz 2-20) by 55 runs
A comprehensive win over Southern Express and Northern Knights' win over Mumbai Indians lifted Lahore Lions into the main draw of the Champions League T20.
Lions had bettered their chances of qualifying after the big win in the first game of the day but their progress also depended on the result of the game between Knights and Mumbai and the New Zealand team's six-wicket win smoothed the road for Lions.
At the toss, Express captain Jehan Mubarak had said that he had chosen to bowl because he preferred chasing a target with the qualification at stake, and had aimed to restrict Lions to a total in the range of 130-140. Those goals, however, came undone in the last five overs of the Lions innings against an attacking innings from Mohammad Hafeez, who blasted 67 off 40 balls.
Lions went into their last five overs on 89 for 3 before Hafeez changed gears. He blasted Seekkuge Prasanna for a four and three successive sixes off the first four balls of the 16th over, which went for 25. The Lions captain followed that up with a few more big hits and brought up the 150 for the side with a six and four off Charith Jayampathi in the 19th over. By the time the innings ended at 164 for 6, 75 had come off the last five overs.
Express needed one of their top-order batsmen to replicate the kind of innings Hafeez had played but their challenge began withering away soon, as Aizaz Cheema reduced them to 36 for 3. An already weakened innings stumbled along to an early finish as Express lost four wickets for six runs, including Mubarak who had struck a brisk 35.
Cheema, who missed out on a hat-trick for the third successive match in the tournament, finished with 3 for 15 and was well supported by Wahab Riaz and Adnan Rasool as Express folded for 109 in 18 overs.
Lions dominated thoroughly with the ball but they lacked fluency in the first half of their batting innings. Until the 15th over, the Express bowlers had done a good job of restraining the batsmen, specially after Farveez Maharoof's strikes in successive overs.
Lions' opening pair of Umar Siddiq, promoted up the order in place of Nasir Jamshed, and Ahmed Shehzad had made a confident start before Maharoof landed the first breakthrough, enticing a dab from Siddiq that was caught by wicketkeeper Kusal Perera.
Maharoof's next over turned out to be even better with the wickets of Shehzad and Jamshed, both batsmen out to poor shots. The next seven overs saw Lions score just 37 runs as Hafeez and Saad Nasim focused on rebuilding the innings and set up a flourish at the end.
Northern Knights 133 for 4 (Williamson 53, Devcich 39) beat Mumbai Indians 132 for 9 (Pollard 31, Styris 3-21, Southee 3-24) by six wickets
A substandard batting performance from defending champions Mumbai Indians led to their elimination from the Champions League as Northern Knights won their third qualification game in a row.
An all-round display from Knights handed Mumbai their second loss in three matches, a six-wicket defeat that ensured Knights and Lahore Lions qualified for the main tournament.
All three teams were in the fray to advance to the next stage and Mumbai had to win the match, by any margin, to qualify.
But once they were put in to bat, their task became an uphill one when they were reduced to 46 for 5 by the Knights seamers in the 11th over. The lower order helped them recover, but the chase of 133 was made easy by the Knights openers who steered them to another convincing win.
Desperate to get a strong start, Mumbai never got in the groove as Trent Boult and Tim Southee stifled them with their nagging line outside off, conceding only 11 in the first four overs, and accounting for Michael Hussey.
First-change Scott Kuggeleijn conceded 15 in the fifth over, but Scott Styris ensured Knights retained suffocating control over proceedings, running through Mumbai's batting with three wickets.
He got rid of Jalaj Saxena, Lendl Simmons and Aditya Tare, with all three batsmen dismissed while making room to target the off side. Saxena handed a low catch to short cover, Simmons missed completely and lost his off stump and Tare looked to cut late but the ball bounced a tad extra and took an edge to land in BJ Watling's gloves.
Boult then came back for his second spell to account for Ambati Rayudu and Mumbai were crumbling at 46 for 5. Outstanding fielding complemented the bowling, cutting off singles and not allowing Mumbai to rotate the strike under pressure.
Mumbai nearly tripled the score from there, in two stages. Kieron Pollard and Harbhajan Singh stalled the fall of wickets for nearly five overs, and after Harbhajan fell for 10, Pollard started the fightback by striking three boundaries to push the score to 89.
Lasith Malinga then struck three fours and a six off successive deliveries, two of them off the edge, and Shreyas Gopal topped it by making room and collecting 16 from the last over to lift the total to 132.
Knights were hardly bothered in the chase, despite losing four wickets, as their openers put on a domineering stand of 83. Anton Devcich took charge initially and a calm Kane Williamson rotated the strike from the other end.
They added 49 runs in the Powerplay, mostly striking the ball around the ground, finding gaps regularly, and converting the loose deliveries on offer.
Bowling changes after the Powerplay didn't help Mumbai, as Williamson chipped the ball into the gaps and used his feet against the spinners to accelerate.
Devcich cashed in on the full tosses and short balls before he became the first of four batsmen to fall to soft dismissals, three of them popping catches to catching fielders in front of the wicket.
But by the time Mumbai removed the openers, Knights needed only 30 from 43 balls and even though Watling gave his wicket away to fall for a duck, Styris came in and hit the winning runs with 16 balls to spare, after Daryl Mitchell had scored 15 off Malinga in the previous over.
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