Qatar T10 League 2019: Match 14 & 15 - Round-Up

The group stage came to an end with these two matches on Saturday.

Published - 15 Dec 2019, 10:33 IST | Updated - 15 Dec 2019, 10:33 IST

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The group stages of the Qatar T10 League have officially come to a close and the semifinalists have been confirmed. The Falcon Hunters and the Desert Riders will play the first semifinal on Sunday, followed by the game between Swift Gallopers and Flying Oryx. The winners of these two contests will collide on Monday for the trophy, right after the 3rd place play-off.

The Swift Gallopers have been on an amazing run in recent games. Once again, they batted first and put on an authoritative target on the board. Skipper Kamran Akmal gave them a fiery start, smacking a 15-ball 25 which included 2 fours and a six. Ravinderpal Singh came in and started hitting some lusty blows as well, which gave them a great chance of scoring in excess of 100.

Once Chaturanga de Silva dismissed Rainvderpal Singh for an 18-ball 34, their innings failed to get a good finish. Silva finished an outstanding 2/16 and Bilawal Iqbal chipped in with a 2/14 in their respective two overs, which saw them finish with 98/6 in 10 overs. The target seemed a little too less after the start they got.

But the Gallopers bowlers had something even more brilliant in store. Mohammad Irfan picked up three wickets in his two overs, whilst Mughees Bajwa and Zainudheen registered figures of 2/10 and 2/12, as the Oryxes could only manage 71 runs in their 10 overs. This gave them a morale-boosting 27-run win going into the semifinals.

Gladiators and Stormers play out a dead-rubber

Both the Gladiators and Heat Stormers had an outside chance of making it to the playoffs and as it turns out, neither of them made it to the semifinals. Batting first, Sohaib Maqsood starred for the Gladiators with a 24-ball 36, which helped them post 93 runs on the board. Batin Shah was outstanding with the ball for the Oryxes, who registered figures of 3/14.

Imraz Rafi gave Stormers a good start but besides him, the other top seven batsmen fell for single digits. Raja Amir tried his hand towards the end, but their effort was too minimal on the day. They got bowled out for 78 runs and fell short of the target by 15 runs. Phillip Joseph picked up three wickets, whilst Sami and Mehran Khan picked up a brace each.