Raipur, Mar 16 : Brian Lara’s West Indies Legends entered the semifinals of the Road Safety World Series T20 by beating Kevin Pietersen’s England Legends by five wickets at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
Chasing 187 runs to win, half centuries from Dwayne Smith and Narsingh Deonarine saw West Indies through to the knockout stage of the tournament.
However, the Windies team that was cruising throughout in the chase got a scare when they needed one run to win in two balls.
Lara stepped out to hit off-spinner James Tredwell but missed the ball and got stumped.
With 1 required on the last ball, Tino Best smartly pushed the ball on the on side for a quick single that took Windies home.
This win helped West Indies Legends finish fourth in the points table, edging out England on better Net Run Rate and to make it to the semis.
They will meet league leaders India Legends in the last four stage game on Wednesday evening.
Earlier, Phil Mustard and Owais Shah both slammed half centuries to see England Legends post a challenging total of 186 for three in 20 overs against West Indies.
Opener Mustard got 57 runs off 41 balls with three sixes and five boundaries while the No. Four batsman Shah hit an unbeaten 30-ball 53 which included three hits over the ropes and five through the ground. Captain Pietersen chipped in with a crucial 38 and Jim Troughton got an important 22.
Put into bat first by West Indies, the English side was there with a mission. And they showed it in their batting with an aggressive approach during the Power play.
Mustard and Pietersen toyed with the Windies attack on a good batting wicket.
Pietersen executed reverse sweeps convincingly against the spinners bowling with the new ball and stepped out when he needed to.
The opening half century partnership of Mustard and Pietersen build a strong foundation for England to put up a good score.
As things were going good, Pietersen edged medium-pacer Dwayne Smith to wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs as the scoreboard read 81 on the board.
A while later Smith dismissed Mustard who got his first half century of the crease.
Later in the end, Shah played some big shots to get his half century and eventually take England to 186 for 3 in 20 overs.
Brief scores: England Legends 186/3 in 20 overs (Phil Mustard 57, Owais Shah 53 not out, Kevin Pietersen 38, Jim Troughton 22; Dwayne Smith 2/31) lost to West Indies Legends 187/5 in 20 overs (Dwayne Smith 58, Narsing Deonarine 53 not out; Kirk Edwards 34; Chris Tremlett 2/37, James Tredwell 2/35) by 5 wickets.
(UNI)
