20-YEAR-OLD ANOTHER PROMISING TALENT OUT OF THE WOODWORK
Afghanistan’s Hazrathullah Zazai displayed his skills as an emerging hard-hitter in world cricket through a powerful knock of 76 to steer Maratha Arabians to an emphatic nine-wicket victory over Bengal Tigers in the T10 League at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
This 20 year old, who shares the world record for the fastest half century in 12 balls with Yuvraj Singh and Chris Gayle in T20 cricket, hit 10 boundaries and four sixes during the course of his 35-ball knock.
Bengal Tigers, who were restricted to 91 for 7, failed to stop the youngster’s power-packed knock. England’s hard hitting opener, who was his partner, watched the youngster’s hits with awe and remained unbeaten on 15 as Arabians won the match with 10 balls to spare.
Earlier, Arabians won the toss and elected to bowl. Roelof Erasmus van der Merwe picked the wicket of opener Luke Wright for just 3. James Faulkner clean bowled onedrop Sherfane Rurtherford for 15 and when Jason Roy to Dwayne Bravo for 27, Bengal slipped to 47 for 3 in 4.1 overs.
To make matters worse, skipper Sam Billing got run out for a naught. Faulkner also dismissed Kevin Cooper for a duck while Rashid Khan ended his compatriot Mohammad Nabi’s knock of 16 by clean bowling him.
UAE’s Chirag Suri and Aamer
Today’s matches
6.30pm: Sindhis vs Pakhtoons 8.45pm: Northern Warriors vs Maratha Arabians
Maratha Arabians bt Bengal Tigers by nine wickets.
Bengal Tigers 91 for seven in 10 overs (Jason Roy 27, James Faulkner 2 for 14) Maratha Arabians 92 for 1 in 8.2 overs (Hazrathullah Zazai 76) Man of the Match: Hazrathullah Zazai. Yamin steered the team from 66 for 6 to a total of 91 with Suri falling to the last ball of the innings from Richard Gleeson for 10. Yamin remained unbeaten on 17.
Zazai began his knock by hitting Mujeeb Ur Rehman for a six and a boundary in the first over. In the second over bowled by Yamin, the hero of their first match with four wickets in four balls against Northern Warriors, was hit for two straight fours by Zazai with tremendous power. Zazai did not spare Morne Morkel too and hit two boundaries in the fourth over. Hales played second fiddle and their 50-run partnership came in 5.1 overs with Zazai scoring 40 of those runs.
Bengal’s fielding too wavered giving away easy runs and dropping catches. Zazai reached his 50 in 27 balls and celebrated it by hitting two successive sixes off Yamin. He fell after equalling the score to Zaheer Khan, who had him caught at long on. “I enjoyed my knock as the ball was coming into the bat and also I capitalised on some of the dropped catches, It is a ten over format and one should try and hit every ball so I focused on every ball to hit,” said Zazai.
Pakhtoons opener Andre Fletcher through a breezy unbeaten 68 off just 27 balls with five sixes and six boundaries over shadowed Rajput’s captain Brendon McCullum’s knock off 58 runs that came off 29 balls with three boundaries and six sixes. Fletcher ensured Pakhtoons a nine-wicket win with two balls to spare on the third day of the second edition of the T10 League at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The crowd were entertained to brilliant knocks by these two best hard-hitters of the game though Rajput’s dangerous batsman Mohammad Shahzad, who won the hearts of the fans through his unbeaten 74 in 16 balls against Sindhis in the first match, fell for six. He began by hitting Sohail Khan’s second ball of the first over for a six but fell for the same score off the last ball of the over hitting to Shahid Afridi at midwicket. Behind this dismissal was an interesting tale. Khan, who is a close friend of Shahzad, had challenged Shahzad that he would pick his wicket. “He is a Pathan and I am a Pathan. We both wanted to succeed. I knew his weakness that if I attack his body I would get his wicket and so I got his wicket but he is a great player.”
Rilee Rossouw entertained the crowd for a brief while before he fell to Afridi for 25. Meanwhile, Brendon McCullum reached his half century in 21 balls. Rajputs went past the 100-run mark in 7.5 overs. McCullum got bowled by Irfan to the fifth ball of the last over after steering his team to a challenging total.
Rossouw was thrilled with the experience of batting with McCullum. “This is the first time I played in T10. McCullum is a great player and I felt so nice to bat with him. If we had scored 15 more runs we would have won the match,” said Rossouw.