Star-studded World Giants beat Asia Lions to claim Legends League title

The World Giants have defeated the Asian Lions to grab the Legends League title in the 2022 final at Al Amarat in Oman.

The Giants, who were led by Caribbean legend Daren Sammy, were extremely clinical through the contest, and their bowlers and batsmen contributed equally towards their thumping 25-run victory.

The Lions won the toss and put the Giants in to bat, which looked like a good decision at that stage. However, when the Giants openers came to bat they hammered the opposition bowling all around the park.

Kevin Pietersen provided them with a blistering start and took his side to 64 in the power play. He was caught by Misbah-ul-Haq after scoring 48 in the blink of the eye.

But even after his departure the pace of scoring didn’t decline, because Corey Anderson was next at the crease, and he mauled the Lions bowlers. He was hitting fours and sixes for fun. He got to 94 in no time before captain Daren Sammy arrived and finished the innings off, scoring 38 of just 17 balls to take the World Giants to a monstrous total of 256 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Giants were allowed to run riot by particularly poor bowling on the part of the Lions. Every one of their bowlers was guilty of bowling loosely and offering batsmen freebies, the notable exception being Nuwan Kulasekara, who took three valuable wickets and was economical by comparison.

Now it was the job of the Asia Lions batsmen to create a miracle and chase down the huge total. Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan opened the innings and started off very well by pouncing on any loose ball, and they got to 59 in the power play.

They continued at a respectable rate until Dilshan threw his wicket away, and no-one after the openers held the innings together to provide the Lions hope.

Mohammad Yousuf played a nice little cameo at the back end of the innings to take the Lions to 8-231 in their 20 overs, but it was too little, too late and not nearly sufficient to chase down the total.

The Giants won the final by 25 runs, and Corey Anderson was unsurprisingly awarded the man of the match award. It completed a strong series for the Giants, who were at the head of the competition after an uncharacteristic loss to the Lions in the first match of the tournament.