Balkh legends win first #apl 2018 gulbahar Rashid Khan, Player of the Tournament: Happy for the board, the way they've managed everything. We've seen lots of good players, youngsters who have performed well. Honoured to get this award. We were 30-35 runs short today. Didn't finish as well as we've done in previous games. Youngsters took responsibility, they've delivered in every single match. Overall good tournament, bowlers have bowled well especially Qais. Job is to come back next year and do well. : Balkh players storm onto the field in celebration, jumping all over the two batsmen in the centre. Balkh Legends are champions of the inaugural edition of APL. They were the dominant team right through the competition and, barring a few hiccups, have emerged as comprehensive winners on the night of the final. Qais Ahmad's brilliant spell of leg-spin, culminating in a five-for, ensured that their strong batting lineup only had 133 to chase. Who knows how differently the chase might've panned out had those two chances of Gayle been taken. Balkh were struggling early on after Parnell's double-strike in the first over. The loss of Gayle at that point might've made it a completely different ball game. But Rashid Khan, of all people, dropped him at long-on when he was on 10. The Jamaican was dropped again later on, and went on to score a fifty that put Kabul out of it. Colin Munro: Pretty special how we've played all through the tournament. Without wanting to sound cocky, we've been the best team in the tournament. A few hiccups today at the start of our innings but Gayle was superb. It was a very easy decision to come here; I had played against Pakistan and only had to get an NOC. The surface was a little two-paced and the ball wasn't coming on as nicely as it did in the semi-finals. Chris Gayle: A great tournament, I am happy with the way it went. A big thank you to the coaching staff and the physios for keeping me fit. Nabi did a great job as a skipper too in leading the team. I got a few chances today, but the final is always going to be a high pressure game. Partnerships were going to be the key and I am glad to have got them over the line. Some great talent here, Afghanistan cricket can only get bigger and better. Other international teams have to be wary of them. BALKH LEGENDS Run Rate 7.60 BATTING R B 4 6 SR Chris Gayle c Ingram b Rashid Khan 56 34 4 4 164.71 Colin Munro c Ingram b Parnell 0 1 0 0 0.00 Darwish Rasooli b Parnell 4 2 1 0 200.00 Ryan ten Doeschate c Ronchi b Muslim Musa 12 20 2 0 60.00 Ravi Bopara not out 32 29 3 0 110.34 Ikram Ali Khil b Fareed Ahmad 9 16 0 0 56.25 Mohammad Nabi c Ronchi b Parnell 6 5 1 0 120.00 Gulbadin Naib not out 7 3 0 1 233.33 TOTAL 138/6 BOWLING O R M W ECON Wayne Parnell 4.0 35 0 3 8.75 Fareed Ahmad 3.1 20 0 1 6.32 Rashid Khan 4.0 21 0 1 5.25 Shahidullah Kamal 2.0 19 0 0 9.50 Muslim Musa 2.0 19 0 1 9.50 Nasir Totakhil 2.0 16 0 0 8.00 Javed Ahmadi 1.0 7 0 0 7.00 IST INNINGS KABUL ZWANAN Run Rate 6.60 BATTING R B 4 6 SR Luke Ronchi c Nabi b Aftab Alam 9 6 0 1 150.00 Hazratullah Zazai c & b Nabi 10 8 2 0 125.00 Wayne Parnell b Qais Ahmad 21 25 1 1 84.00 Colin Ingram c Mirwais b Bopara 21 19 3 0 110.53 Javed Ahmadi c Mirwais b Qais Ahmad 32 19 2 2 168.42 Laurie Evans st Ikram Ali Khil b Qais Ahmad 14 15 1 0 93.33 Shahidullah Kamal not out 12 14 0 0 85.71 Rashid Khan c & b Qais Ahmad 3 4 0 0 75.00 Muslim Musa c Ikram Ali Khil b Qais Ahmad 4 4 1 0 100.00 Fareed Ahmad b Mirwais 4 5 0 0 80.00 Nasir Totakhil not out 1 1 0 0 100.00 TOTAL 132/9 BOWLING O R M W ECON Mohammad Nabi 4.0 30 0 1 7.50 Aftab Alam 3.0 13 0 1 4.33 Mirwais Ashraf 4.0 20 0 1 5.00 Gulbadin Naib 2.0 22 0 0 11.00 Ravi Bopara 3.0 28 0 1 9.33 Qais Ahmad 4.0 18 0 5 4.50