Gurbaz shines in Bulls’ victory over Warriors, Team Abu Dhabi tame Tigers
In a rematch of the season four final, Delhi Bulls got one over defending champions Northern Warriors, beating them by six wickets.
Dwayne Bravo called it right at the toss for Bulls and put the Northern Warriors in to bat.
Warriors got off to a slow start, losing Kennar Lewis in the first over and scored their first boundary in the third over, a six from Samit Patel’s bat.
The defending champs were 46/2 before Moeen Ali and captain Rovman Powell took 23 runs off Dwayne Bravo in the sixth over to give the innings a push. However, Bulls did not concede any boundaries in the final two overs as Warriors finished with 107/4.
For Delhi Bulls, Rahmanullah Gurbaz hit a six and a four off the first two balls of the innings and then hit three consecutive sixes off Imran Tahir in the second over before being dismissed off the last ball to end with a rapid 10-ball 30.
Bulls’ next big over was the sixth as their icon player Mohammad Hafeez hit three fours off Chris Jordan to take 16 runs.
Mohammad Hafeez kept ticking along, Sherfane Rutherford hit a short cameo and Romario Shepard hit two fours in the ninth over to finish off the chase with an over to spare.
STIRLING, GAYLE BLOW BANGLA TIGERS AWAY: Faf du Plessis won the toss on his debut in the Abu Dhabi T10 for Bangla Tigers and opted to bowl. He seemed to be vindicated when Bangla Tigers took two wickets in the first two overs.
From then on though, it was the Paul Stirling and Chris Gayle storm which hit the Zayed Cricket Stadium.
Paul Stirling took 14 runs off Luke Wood in the third over and the Universe Boss cut loose in the fith over - smashing 29 runs off Sabir Rao, hiting three sixes and a four.
It was the turn of Stirling in the next over, as he blitzed three sixes and a four off Qais Ahmed to make it consecutive 29-run overs and Team Abu Dhabi ended with 145/4.
The Bangla Tigers seemed to have the perfect response as Andre Fletcher took 18 runs off the first over from Sheldon Cotrell.
However, Marchant de Lange took out Faf du Plessis for a duck and dismissed Fletcher off the last ball to make it a double strike in the second over.
Teamabudhabicaptainliamlivingstonepicked Johnson Charles in the third over to completely halt Bangla Tigers’ chase.
Benny Howell and Hazratullah Zazai took 17 runs in the sixth over for Bangla Tigers but Marchant de Lange came back in the seventh over to take three wickets to complete his five-wicket haul and reduce them to 81/7.
Bangla Tigers then trundled along to finish on 105/8 and lost the match by 40 runs.
Meanwhile Former India pace bowler Abhimanyu Mithun wants to use the fith season of Abu Dhabi T10, beginning here on November 19, as a springboard to further his T20 career and play in the various lucrative league across the world.
The 32-year-old Mithun, who has built his cricketing career playing Ranji Trophy for Karnataka, besides playing in the Indian Premier League -- Royal Challengers Bangalore (2009), Mumbai Indians (2015) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (2016-18) -- has so far taken 69 wickets in 74 Twenty20 games.
Speaking about competing in the Abu Dhabi T10, Mithun, who also played four Tests, said on Monday that he will take confidence from his recent performances to do well in the tournament.