T10 League 2017 - Day 1 Round up

Cricket welcomes another new format into the game through the T10 League and Sharjah played hosts to the first ever T10 game in the history. A total of six teams will lock horns against each other and battle it out for the coveted trophy and on the opening day, teams from both Group A and Group B entertained one and all.

The cricketing action commenced with the game between Bengal Tigers and Kerala Kings. Pakistan’s captain across all formats Sarfraz Khan was leading the Bengal side whereas English limited overs skipper Eoin Morgan was the Kings’ skipper. Batting first, the Tigers struggled a bit, but eventually posted an above par total on board.

Powered by a couple of good knocks from the Caribbean pair Andre Fletcher and Johnson Charles and a decent cameo from David Miller, they posted 86 runs on the board losing just one wicket. Wahab Riaz pulled off a brilliant 2-over spell and picked up the only wicket of the innings, giving away just 11 runs.

Chasing the 87-run target, Kerala was lagging behind with an early wicket. But Irish opener Paul Stirling, who recently played some decent knocks against Afghanistan in the ODI series, took the onus upon himself to help his side chase down the total. He notched a priceless half-century and finished with 66 off 27 balls, helping his side complete the run chase in just 8 overs.

Brief Scores

Bengal Tigers: 86/1 in 10 overs (Andre Fletcher 32, Johnson Charles 33)

Kerala Kings: 90/2 in 10 overs (Paul Stirling 66*)

Man of the match: Paul Stirling

Afridi’s hattrick lits Sharjah

The second match of the day was between the Pakhtoons led by the legendary Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi and Maratha Arabians, led by the swashbuckling Virender Sehwag. This match had some very attractive and crowd-pulling players and it did live up to the expectations.

Firstly, the Pakhtoons were off to a bad start batting first. They lost two wickets in the very first over. Dwayne Smith and Ahmed Shehzad were back in the hunt thanks to Imad Wasim’s wonderful first over. But Fakhar Zaman and Liam Dawson piled up some crucial runs and they got them at a healthy rate. The scoring rate eventually escalated and went above 11.

Fakhar Zaman finished with a 22-ball 45 whereas Dawson scored 44 runs in 23 balls. The duo struck seven sixes between them and helped the Pakhtoons post a huge 121 runs on the board. It was a tough ask for the Arabians to comeback and win the game from here, but they had some decent strikers in their arsenal as well.

In the run chase, Alex Hales helped the Arabians clinch a quickfire start, but Shahid Afridi struck with a hat-trick on the very first day of the League’s history to stem the run flow. He first picked up the wicket of Rilee Rossouw, then followed it up with the prized scalp of Dwayne Bravo. His hattrick wicket was that of an arch-rival in Virender Sehwag and it must’ve brought back a lot of memories.

They bowled a few tidy overs from there on which helped the Pakhtoons keep their opponents a good distance away from the target. Eventually, Alex Hales finished with 57 off 26 balls, but the Arabians could only manage 96 runs in their 10 overs. It was a comprehensive 25-run victory for the Pakhtoons which kickstarts their tournament in a grandiose way.

Watch: Afridi’s hat-trick here

Afridi ♥️ pic.twitter.com/ESthqJAdeo

— Rana Talha Asfar (@RTAluvzAfridi) December 14, 2017

Brief Scores

Pakhtoons: 121/4 in 10 overs (Fakhar Zaman 45, Liam Dawson 44)

Maratha Arabians: 96/7 in 10 overs (Alex Hales 57*; Shahid Afridi 3/19)

Man of the match: Shahid Afridi