Legends League Cricket 2022: Brett Lee stunningly defends 8 runs off the final over to knock India Maharajas out of the tournament

The veteran retired cricketers have certainly rolled back the clocks in the ongoing inaugural edition of the Legends League Cricket in Oman. In the final league game of the tournament on Thursday (January 27), India Maharajas locked horns against World Giants. The Indian side was in a must-win situation to make it to the final while the Giants had already qualified for the title clash.

No wonder the game went down to the wire and at one stage, India Maharajas looked set to chase down a gigantic 228 with a couple of balls to spare. But they were denied by a certain Brett Lee who still has a lot of fire in him as the Aussie pacer delivered a terrific last over and defended 8 runs. Irfan Pathan, having smashed the fastest fifty of the tournament off 18 balls, was on strike and clearly India were the favourites to seal the deal.

The over began with a wide but Lee struck back off the very next delivery with Irfan miscuing a big shot only for Morne Morkel to take a good catch. Rajat Bhatia then offered a chance going for a boundary but was dropped by the same fielder and the poor running meant tail ender Avishkar Salvi was on strike with six runs still needed off four balls.

Brett Lee sticks to his plan

Brett Lee was in his elements even at the age of 45 and stuck to his wide yorker line against Salvi. The latter couldn’t put bat to ball for the next two delivers. Desperate Bhatia then tried to sneak a bye off the penultimate delivery which Salvi again missed. However, the wicketkeeper Phil Mustard affected the direct hit to catch Bhatia short.

The onus of scoring six off the last ball to tie the match now fell on Amit Bhandari and Brett Lee, having bowled a fantastic over until then, continued his good job delivering yet another wide yorker. Bhandari missed his hoick and India Maharajas fell short of the target despite a herculean effort from the batters.

They looked set to win at one stage when Irfan Pathan was going bonkers but Brett Lee bowled a special last over conceding only one run off the bat and showed he still has it in him to deliver the goods.

Here’s the video: