Sharjah: Shahid Afridi, hero of many a battles at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, did what the unique T10 Cricket League format wanted on the first day of the tournament on Thursday night. He bowled a hat-trick to prove to the world that he is still a champion cricketer, although retired from international cricket, and lifted the profile of this version of the game.
A near-packed stadium enjoyed this new shortest version of the game with fans cheering for every shot and wicket-taking deliveries. When Afridi produced his hat-trick he literally wiped away all doubts on this format’s success with the crowd giving him a standing ovation. His hat-trick victims included Rilee Rossouw and Dwayne John Bravo, and he completed the hat-trick by taking the prize wicket of Maratha Arabians captain and former India’s star batsman Virender Sehwag.
The very first match ignited the excitement for this format when Kerala Kings, cheered by drum beating fans, scored an emphatic eight wicket victory over Bengal Tigers led by Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmad. Both matchers were lessons to cricketers on how to play this format to come out a winner.
The Kerala-Bengal match proved that a super star was not needed to win a match when Ireland’s Paul Stirling cracked a breezy unbeaten 66 off 27 balls with ten boundaries and three sixes to give Kerala a winning start.
Bengal received a huge blow just before the start of the tournament when six of their players selected through the draft pulled out due to personal reasons. Additionally, after being put into bat, Bengal failed to bat as fast as they should have done in the quick format. They batted as if retaining their wickets mattered more than scoring runs; and with the result they managed a mere 86 for 1 from their 10 overs.
Hard-hitter Darren Sammy did not get a chance to bat, and David Miller, known as Killer Miller for his brisk knocks, got only nine balls to face. Their openers Andre Fletcher scored an unbeaten 32 using up 24 balls and Johnson Charles. scored even slower, taking 27 balls to score 33 runs.
Bengal still tried to fight it out, but their South African pacer Marchant de Lange gave away 21 runs in the seventh over to prove that in the T10 format one bad over could take the match away.
On the other hand, the second match was an example of how one very good over can win a T10 match too, when Afridi took his hat-trick. Despite Maratha’s opener Alex Hales cracking an unbeaten 57 off 26 balls with five boundaries and four sixes, their team failed to reach the target.
Brief scores:
Kerala Kings bt Bengal Tigers by 8 wickets. Bengal Tigers 86 for 1 in 10 overs (Andre Fletcher 32n.o, Johnson Charles 33) Kerala Kings 90 for 2 in 8 overs (Paul Stirling 66n.o) Man of the match: Paul Stirling.
Pakhtoons bt Maratha Arabians by eight wickets. Pakthoons 121 for 4 in 10 overs (Fakhar Zaman 45n.o, Liam Dawson 44, Imad Wasim 2 for 20). Maratha Arabians 96 for 7 in 10 overs (Alex Hales 57n.o, Shahid Afridi 3 for 19, Mohammad Irfan 2 for 19, Sohail Khan 2 for 7) Man of the match: Shahid Afridi.
