MCL 10th Match Review: Sehwag's sizzling century steers Gemini Arabians to victory

Today’s match between Gemini Arabians and Sagittarius Strikers will be a match to remember for cricket lovers. Players from both teams played their hearts out for the victory but in the end, it was the Arabians who managed to sneak through closely with 2 points in the ends.

The Arabians started off blazingly after going in to bat first. Virender Sehwag got off the mark in his usual way by hitting a boundary off the first ball. The opening pair struck 86 runs with Sehwag playing the role of the aggressor. Rudolph was little slow initially but got in the groove after he hit four back to back fours in the fifth over by Shane Bond.

Rudolph (27 from 19 balls), however, could not carry on with the momentum he found and was dismissed soon. Sangakkara then joined Sehwag in the middle and the run rate shot up considerably. Sehwag had become haywire as the innings progressed and batted without the fear of losing his wicket. The ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ brought his fifty in style in the 7th over with a six. He then raced to his century in just 47 balls and brought it up in a similar fashion. He batted till the penultimate over of the Arabians innings before getting out to Yasir Arafat for a sparkling 134 off just 63 balls. His knock included a barrage of 10 sixes and 11 fours four. It was a Virender Sehwag show all throughout the match until now but, there was even more exciting thing waiting to happen ahead.

West Indian seamer Krishmar Santokie was having an ordinary day so far before he came in to bowl the last over where he took a world record four wickets in four balls to steal the attention of the spectators. His victims were Kumar Sangakkara, Brad Hodge, Justin Kemp and Naved ul Hasan. The last ball also resulted in a wicket after Kyle Mills was run out. In all, the over yielded just one run and five wickets for the Strikers as the Arabians ended at 224/7 after 20 overs.

With a daunting target staring at their faces, the Strikers got off to a rather ominous start to the innings as they lost their opener Adam Gilchrist in the first over itself. This was followed by cheap dismissals of Jayawardene and Carberry. However, Pakistani pair of Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed then counterattacked the Arabians bowlers and brought their team into the match again. The Arabians gained the upper hand yet again in the match as spin bowling duo of Murali and Saqlain struck in quick successions.

Both shared 4 wickets among them in the middle overs, one of which was a runout. The well-set duo of Farhat (51 from 32 balls) and Hameed (41 from 22 balls) were sent back to the pavilion in consecutive overs by Murali and Saqlain respectively. Murali kept going and struck with the two more in the form of Mustard and Vettori. Arafat (32 from 16 balls), who was playing a great cameo, also lost his wicket which dented the chasing efforts further. Tail-ender Bond (12 from 7 balls) and Santokie (23 from 9 balls) tried their best but eventually the Strikers fell short of the target by just 12 runs, thus, losing the match.

Brief Scores:

Gemini Arabians 224/7 in 20 overs (Sehwag 134; Santokie 5/30)

Sagittarius Strikers 212/9 in 20 overs (Farhat 51; Muralitharan 3/38)

Man of the Match: Virender Sehwag (Gemini Arabians)

How did Twitter react to Sehwag’s mind blowing knock? – Twitter Reactions: Virender Sehwag and Krishmar Santokie produce magical performances