Ben ‘Cutsy’ cuts through Knights as Leopards win
sharjah — Former Australian allrounder Ben Cutting cut through the Kandahar Knights as the Nangarhar Leopards began their Gulbahar Afghanistan Premier League (APL) campaign with a six-wicket win at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
The 31-year-old Queenslander, interim captain of the Leopards, scythed through the Knights to return with a fifer.
Cutting, nicknamed ‘Cutsy’ among his mates, snapped up five wickets conceding 28 runs in his four overs to restrict the Knights.
Openers Najeeb Tarakai and Johnson Charles chipped away at the 140-run target with a 25-ball 32 and 24-ball 30 respectively after which Shafiqullah (35 not out) Hashmatullah Shahidi (26 not out) saw them home following a few hiccups.
“It is a new tournament for most of us so to get a win on the board, and the way we did it too — it wasn’t a flashy win, it was a proper grind and the boys had to work quite hard while having a bat. That’s going to give everyone in our team and squad a lot of confidence for the remaining fixtures,” Cutting said after the match.
Unlike the tournament opener, this was a low scoring game but Cutting revealed that he told his team to not think too much about it.
“That was one of the first things I said to our guys in the team meeting today is that don’t read too much into what happened last night’s game. It was a different wicket for starters. Had a lot more grass and it was going to be different to how this played out,” he said.
Earlier, Cutting floored the Knights with his five-for after the Asghar Afghan had decided to bat first.
Cutting saw the backs of opener and former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, the defiant Karim Janat and also polished off the lower order of Najibullah Zadran, Amir Hamza and Sayed Shirzad.
And despite a fighting run-a-ball 39 from the 20-year-old Janat, the Kandahar Knights were throttled by Cutting and the Leopards.
The Kandahar Knights eventually ended up with 139 for nine in their 20 overs, which on a surface like this was well below par for the course.
On paper, the Kandahar Knights batting line-up quite solid but that remained just on paper though. They had 28-year-old Irishman Paul Stirling, who had starred on this very venue in the inaugural T10 League last year.
They also had another Irishman in Kevin O’Brien apart from McCullum but they were stamped out by Cutting as well as medium pacer Naveed-ul-Haq, 17-yearold off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 19-year-old left-arm chinaman Zahir Khan, and leg-spinner Rahmat Shah. Left-arm pacer former New Zealand international Mitchell McClenaghan was the
lone bowler to not pick a wicket. Janat, who has played 14 T20 Internationals and one ODI for Afghanistan, was left to wage a lone battle after Stirling had made a 15-ball 18 and McCullum, a 15-ball 19.
Janat managed three boundaries and a six, off Mujeeb Ur Rahman, in his fighting knock. O’Brien scored 22 from 14 balls with three boundaries, while Najibullah Zadran made 17 from 12, also with three boundaries. Nangarhar Leopards take on Paktia Panthers in the first fixture on Sunday, while Kandahar Knights meet Balkh Legends in the second match of the night.