European Cricket League 2019, Day 2: Round-up

The European T10 League (ECL) 2019, just like day-1, provided the fans with some fabulous entertainment on the second day. This day was also the final day for the league stages as the knockout games will be played on Wednesday. A record-breaking game between Cluj Cricket Club vs Dreux Cricket Club was on display.

Ahmad Nabi registered a beautiful hundred in this game, the first of the European Cricket League. Also, his team won the game by a huge margin of 95 runs. Mads Henriksen, Zishan Shah were amongst the other batsmen who scored half-centuries on the day. There were also some good bowling performances on display.

Here is how things progressed on the day:

Cluj Cricket Club vs Dreux Cricket Club – Group A

Dreux Cricket Club won the toss and opted to bat first in this game only to put up a record total on the board later on. Their innings was dominated by Ahmad Nabi who has possibly played the knock of the tournament thus far. He faced 30 balls out of which 14 disappeared for sixes. He even became the first centurion of the season and scored 105 runs at a strike rate of 350. With some contributions from the other batsmen, Dreux got to a mammoth 164/6 in 10 overs.

This was an improbable target to chase. And when only two batsmen reach the double figures, it gets that much more difficult. Satwik Nadigotla remained unbeaten on 27 off 25 balls while Rajendra Arjun scored 16 from 15. This kind of performance was hardly going to be sufficient and Cluj lost the match by 95 runs.

Brief Scores:

DRX: 164/6 in 10 overs (Ahmad Nabi 105, Sher Afridi 14, Muhammad Iftikhar 2/11)

CLJ: 69/5 in 10 overs (Satwik Nadigotla 27*, Rajendra Arjun 16*, Wahid Abdul 3/9)

Result: Dreux Cricket Club won by 95 runs.

V.O.C Rotterdam vs Svanholm Cricket Club – Group A

This was a very interesting game and left the fans on the edge of their seats. Courtesy contributions from Corey Rutgers (29 off 7), Pierce Fletcher (23 off 12) and Jelte Schoonheim (27 off 16), V.O.C Rotterdam got to 133/7 after being put in to bat first. While this was a good score, things got quite tight towards the end of the 2nd innings.

Opener Mads Henriksen laid the perfect platform for the chase with 53 from only 21 balls. However, none of the other batsmen could make substantial contributions. Yet, the team got quite close to the target but fell short by 7 runs. Ashiqullah Said, Pierce Fletcher and Jelte Schoonheim picked up two wickets each.

Brief Scores:

RTT: 133/7 in 10 overs (Corey Rutgers 29*, Jelte Schoonhein 27, Zeshan Khan 2/36)

SVH: 126/8 in 10 overs (Mads Henriksen 53, Zishan Shah 13, Pierce Fletcher 2/14)

Result: V.O.C Rotterdam won by 7 runs.

The brief scores of the other games that were played on the day:

Svanholm Cricket Club vs Cluj Cricket Club – Group A

CLJ: 75/7 in 10 overs (Taranjeet Singh 35, Vasu Saini 11, Zeshan Khan 2/10)

SVH: 76/0 in 8.2 overs (Zishan Shah 53*, Jonas Henriksen 20*, Taranjeet Singh 0/12)

Result: Svanholm Cricket Club won by 10 wickets.

St. Petersburg Lions vs SG Findorff – Group B

PTL: 53/8 in 10 overs (Vijay Kumar Gautam 18, Akashdeep Singh 11, Iftikhar Khan 2/12)

FDF: 59/2 in 6 overs (Israr Khan 25*, Aziz Ullah Dawodzy 15, Lalit 1/14)

Result: SG Findorff won by 8 wickets.

JCC Brescia vs St. Petersburg Lions – Group B

JJB: 116/7 in 10 overs (Muhammad Jafri 40, Harsha Chiranga Wass Warnakulasuriya 28, Lalit 3/10)

PTL: 91/6 in 10 overs (Anil Singh 35, Radzhinder Singh 20, Muhammad Iqbal 3/29)

Result: JCC Brescia won by 25 runs.

SG Findorff vs Catalunya Cricket Club – Group B

CTL: 115/7 in 10 overs (Rauf Zaman 41*, Yasir Ali 27, Iftikhar Khan 2/11)

FDF: 116/4 in 8.4 overs (Ammar Khalid 45*, Ghullam Amirie 16*, Syed Sherazi 3/24)

Result: SG Findorff won by 6 wickets.