India Legends win 1st Road Safety World Series cricket title

All-rounder Yusuf Pathan starred with an unbeaten 62 and two wickets as the Sachin Tendulkar-captained India Legends beat Sri Lanka Legends by 14 runs in the final to win the first Road Safety World Series T20 title on Sunday.

Pathan's two for 26 helped restrict Sri Lanka to 167/7 in 20 overs while they chased a target of 182 at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium. Sanath Jayasuriya scored the highest (43) while captain Tillakratne Dilshan failed to click this time, scoring just 21.

Earlier, Yuvraj Singh and Pathan went on a rampage by slamming half centuries to see India Legends put up a challenging total of 181 for four wickets in 20 overs.

Yuvraj scored an entertaining 60 off 41 balls with four boundaries and as many sixes while Patahn remained unbeaten on 62 off 36 balls, with four hits to the ropes and five sixes. Other than the two big men, Tendulkar made a classy 30 that included five boundaries.

For the Sri Lankans, none of the bowlers were impressive as Rangana Herath, Sanath Jayasuriya, Farveez Maharoof and Kaushalya Weeraratne took one wicket each. The tournament's leading wicket-taker and Sri Lanka's match-winner, Dilshan, returned empty handed, giving away 25 runs in two overs.

Brief scores: India Legends 181/4 in 20 overs (Yusuf Pathan 62 not out, Yuvraj Singh 60, Sachin Tendulkar 30) beat Sri Lanka legends 167/7 in 20 overs (Sanath Jayasuriya 43, Chinthaka Jayasinghe 40, Kausalya Weeraratne 38; Yusuf Pathan 2/26, Irfan Pathan 2/29) by 14 runs