A clinical display of accurate bowling and powerful hitting helped Qalandars to trounce Pune Devils by nine wickets, in the fourth match of the Abu Dhabi T10 at the Abu Dhabi Zayed Cricket Stadium. The first match of the second day thus saw Qalandars exhibiting their enormous bowling strength, to restrict Pune Devils to 107 for 2 despite Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s fine knock of 53. Qalandars then raced to the target through Tom Banton‘s 45 off just 18 balls. Opener Sharjeel Khan remained unbeaten on 28 and Sohail Akhtar, through an unconquered 33, won the match with 17 balls to spare.
Qalandars elected to field after winning the toss. Pune Devils openers Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Kennar Lewis walked in carrying the confidence, of having won their first match on the opening day against Deccan Gladiators. UAE’s left-arm spinner Sultan Ahmed, who opened the bowling for Qalandars, was hit for 10 runs in the first over. From the second over from Samit Patel, Pune smashed 19 runs which included Cadmore’s two consecutive sixes. Ahmed struck in his third over by trapping Lewis leg before for 3. In that over, Ahmed gave away just three runs.
In the fifth over bowled by Azmatullah Omarzai, Cadmore scored 17 runs including a six and a boundary. At the halfway mark, Pune were 59-1, needing some big hits for a big score. Pakistan’s veteran left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir, who bowled the sixth over, gave away just six runs. The pressure for big shots kept mounting on Pune. When Ahmad Daniyal too gave away only nine runs from the seventh over, the chances of Pune’s score going past the 100 run mark looked doubtful. The eighth over from Chris Jordan, known as one of the finest death over bowlers, was spot on and yielded only seven runs.
Darwish Rasooli managed to hit Tanvir’s first ball of the ninth over for a six over long-off. Cadmore went past his half-century mark, but fell to Jordan’s first ball of the last over, getting caught at short third man for 54. Chadwick Walton hit the first ball he faced for a boundary to long-on and took Pune past the 100 run mark. Walton managed to hit one more boundary to take Pune’s score to 107/2 in 10 overs. Rasooli remained unbeaten on 39 off 24 balls.
Tom Banton and Sharjeel Khan opened the batting for Qalandars, and right away went for their shots. Banton began by hitting Mohammad Amir to fine leg for a six. In the second over, Banton hit Pune skipper Nasir Hossain for 22 runs which included two sixes and two boundaries.
The 50-run opening partnership came in just 3.1 overs. Oman’s Munis Ansari ended the partnership by having Banton caught and bowled for 45 off 18 balls with four boundaries and four sixes. Sharjeel then took charge and pulled Ansari for a powerful six. By the halfway mark, Qalandars needed only 36 more runs.
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Mohammad Amir was introduced for the sixth over, but Sharjeel pulled the first ball from him for a six as well as a boundary. Skipper Sohail Akhtar too played some beautiful shots to accelerate the run flow and comfortably reach their target.
Brief Scores: Pune Devils 107/2 in 10 overs (Tom Kohler-Cadmore 54, Darwish Rasooli 39*) lost to Qalandars 108/1 in 7.1 overs (Tom Banton 45, Sharjeel Khan 28, Sohail Akhtar 33).
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