KATHMANDU, June 30: Sri Lankan Lions became the fourth team to secure berth in the Asian Club Premier League (ACPL)'s playoffs after defeating Bangladesh Tigers by 33 runs under D/L in the rain halted match on Friday.
With a win over Tigers, Lions extended its points tally to six from five matches and wrapped up the league round in second position. Table topper Nepal Storm, Tigers and Dubai Warriors have already booked their places in the play-offs.
Now the winner between first-placed Storm and second-placed Lions in the qualifier match will advance to the final of the tournament. Likewise, the loser of the qualifier will have second chance to make summit clash as it will face the winner of the eliminator match that will be played between third placed Tigers and fourth placed Warriors.
Meanwhile in the match played at TU Cricket Ground, put to bat first after winning the toss Lions made a total of 138 runs in the loss of eight wickets in allotted 20 overs. However after the match was marred by rains, the match was reduced to 18 overs and the target was set at 125 runs. In reply, Tigers was bowled out for 91 runs for six wickets in the allotted overs.
No batsman made decent runs for Tigers as only three batsmen - Sanjog Binkar, Mohd Karim, Anku Dubey - collected double digits. Sanjog stroked 22 runs off 32 balls while Karim scored 11 runs facing 18 balls. Likewise, Anku contributed 17 runs off 16 balls for Tigers.
Malintha Hettiarachchi and Akash Goutal claimed two wickets each for Lions while Kartik Kuruveti added another.
Earlier, for Lions, Akash Goutal scored highest 49 runs off 31 balls while Dinesh Nakrani collected 31 runs facing 25 balls. Likewise, Nikhil Namdev contributed 12 runs.
Mohd Karim was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers as he pocketed three wickets while Vicky Chauhan and Sanjog Binkar added one wicket each.
Nepal Storm, Sri Lankan Lions to lock horns in ACPL final
