Stuart Binny played an absolutely breathtaking innings against West Indies Champions in Leicester to take India Champions to the semi-final in the ongoing World Championship of Legends (WCL) 2025.
India needed to chase the 145-run target in 14.1 overs to qualify for the semi-final. None of the Indian top-order batters could get going, and at 52/4, semi-final hopes were looking bleak for India. But then came Binny, and with captain Yuvraj Singh, he stitched together a partnership of 66 runs in just 27 balls, of which Binny’s contribution was an unbeaten 45 off 16 balls.
Yuvraj got out after scoring a quickfire 21 off 11 balls. After that, Yusuf Pathan joined Binny, and they both ensured that India Champions reached the target well before the required overs to secure a place in the semi-finals. Yusuf remained unbeaten on 21 off just seven balls at a strike rate of 300, with one four and two sixes. Binny remained not out on 50 from just 21 balls at a blistering strike rate of 238.10. His innings included three fours and four sixes.
Earlier, West Indies Champions had a very poor start to their innings, losing four wickets within the powerplay. Kieron Pollard was the only batter who helped the Caribbean side reach 144 runs. He scored 74 off 43 balls at a strike rate of 172.09, with three fours and eight sixes. For India Champions, Piyush Chawla was the highest wicket-taker with figures of 3/18 in his four overs at an economy rate of 4.50. Binny was handy with the ball too, taking two wickets. He was adjudged the Player of the Match.
Interestingly, it was the first win for the defending champions this season in five matches, and with three points and a net run rate of -0.558, they finished at the fourth position in the table and qualified for the semi-finals.
England Champions also finished with three points but this huge win helped India to manage a better net run rate than England. Both England and West Indies got eliminated. Now India will face arch-rivals Pakistan Champions in the first semi-final on 31 July 2025 in Birmingham.
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