Srinagar, May 20: The nine men GK Warriors outplayed GK Lions by eight runs in the third match of the Challenger T20 Series at Islamia College ground Hawal here on Saturday.
 Having lost first two matches of the series the nine-men Warriors lead by captain Qazi Manzoor bounced back strongly in third encounter defeating Lions by eight runs in high scoring thriller. The Warriors rode on the all-round performance of Nisar Hafiz, Nisar Shah and Abid Khan while for Lions the valiant ruthless inning of Uzair Handoo went in vain.
 Earlier before the match players of both the teams were introduced to Physical director Islamia College, Altaf-ur-Rehman who assured every kind of help from the college to Greater Kashmir teams.
 Batting first Warriors got volatile start as their both the openers were back in the pavilion with score on 20 runs from three overs. After that inform batsman Nisar Shah steady the inning along with Nisar Hafiz who batted superbly. Both hammered Lions bowlers all over the park with their stand-in captain Bilal Rather running out of ideas. However with score on 90, Nisar Shah gave away his wicket to a loose stroke of Rafiq’s bowling. He scored 57 runs that included seven boundaries. After that Nisar Hafiz was joined by Abid Khan and took score beyond 140 mark. Both departed in quick succession scoring 27 and 13 runs respectively. Warriors scored 158 runs for the loss of seven wickets in allotted overs.
 For Lions Aijaz Sofi and Uzair took two wickets each while Mudasir, Arif and Rafiq took one wicket each.
 In reply Lions inning stuttered from the start as their cautious approach towards target proved costly for them. They lost couple of quick wickets and with score below six runs per over in first six overs. Mudasir Ali tried to stable the inning but he lost his wicket for 21 runs and followed by Rafiq in same over. Both accumulated by Abid. At that time it was looking Lions will give away easily. However, their hard hitting batsman Uzair had some other plans in store. He made counter attack and started to smash warrior’s bowlers all over. His approach was risky but was working. When Lions needed 39 runs of four overs he wanted to finish inning quickly but was foxed by Nisar Shah. That was turning point of the match as after that no batsman was able to carry on the momentum. Uzair made quick 60 that included 14 boundaries. That shows his power play. In allotted overs, Lions were able to score only 150 runs thus lost match by eight runs. Aijaz Sofi remained unbeaten for Lions with 22 runs. For Warriors, Nisar Shah, Abid Khan and Nisar hafiz took two wickets each.
 It was first loss for Lions after having won both the opening encounters in the series under the leadership of Hamid Makhdoomi.
 “I am happy with the overall performance of my side. It is good to see us managing to bounce back in the series. We were reduced to nine players only still motivated ourselves to win this crucial encounter,” Warriors skipper Qazi Manzoor said.
 Match was officiated by Sajid Ahmad Zargar and Rafiq Ahmad Doura. The college ground staff worked hard to prepare the turf and also made other arrangements during the match.
 The GK Lions is sponsored by Chinar Advertising while as GK Warriors are sponsored by Greatway Communications.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 IST