Gayle storm blows Arabians away as Qalandars notch up fifth straight win

Chris Gayle’s pulverized the Maratha Arabians bowling attack to crack an unbeaten 84 off 22 balls with powerfully executed nine sixes and six boundaries to steer Team Abu Dhabi to a nine-wicket win in the second match of the third day of the Super League in the Alubond Abu Dhabi T10 tournament on Wednesday.

Chasing Maratha Arabians’ modest total of 97 for 4, Gayle helped his team reach the target in 5.3 overs and win the match with 27 balls to spare.

Gayle, known as the Universe Boss, dominated the attack. He was in his elements from the first over, ravaging any error in line and length from the bowlers.

All his sixes and boundaries were hit so effortlessly that it was a treat to watch his power and panache.

Incidentally, 78 runs out of his 84 came through boundaries. He reached his half century in 12 balls and equaled the fastest half century in T10 history held by Mohammad Shahzad for Rajputs in the 2018 edition.

Earlier, Abu Dhabi won the toss and elected to field. Arabians introduced UAE’s 18-year-old opener Alishan Sharafu to open with Mukhtar Ali. Tom Helm bowled a maiden first over to Sharafu.

In the second over, Mukhtar hit Rohan Mustafa for three boundaries while Sharafu hit a six to take 19 runs off that over. Jamie Overton got Mukhtar out by top edging him to mid-wicket for 14. Mohammad Hafeez joined Sharafu and picked a boundary off Naveen Ul Haq.

Sharafu hit Haq to deep mid-wicket for his second six. In the fifth over, Sharafu flicked Jamie Overton’s first delivery of the fifth over to the boundary and hit the next for a six over backward square leg. He also hit the last ball of that over to the deep square leg boundary to take 17 runs off the over.

At the half-way mark, Arabians were 52 for 1. Mustafa bowled a tight sixth over giving away just seven runs. Sharafu’s fine knock of 33 came to an end in the seventh over when Obed McCoy had him caught behind.

Hafeez too followed, caught and bowled by Naveed Ul Haq, for 20 in the eighth over. Shoaib Malik hit two consecutive boundaries off the fourth and fifth deliveries of Naveed’s over.

Laurie Evans lifted McCoy for a six over mid-wicket but fell to the fifth ball of that over by getting caught at third man for 8. Tom Helm, who bowled the tenth over gave away just eight and prevented Arabians from reaching the 100 run mark.

Chasing the easy target, Gayle gave Abu Dhabi a flying start. He hit Yamin Ahmadzai for three consecutive boundaries and a six to get 18 runs off the over. Opener Paul Stirling too hit Sompal Kami for two consecutive boundaries of the first two balls of the second over. Gayle hit the fourth, fifth and sixth deliveries for sixes to take 27 runs off the over.

Arabians introduced UAE 16-year-old Maroof Merchant into the attack. Though he bowled the first four balls tightly, Gayle hit his last two deliveries for sixes. Ishan Malhotra gave away only ten runs in the fifth over.

Gayle hit the third ball of the sixth over from Mukhtar over mid-wicket to reach the target to the relief of all bowlers and fielders.

Meanwhile, the mighty Qalandars extend their winning run by scuttling Bangla Tigers’ spirited show in the first match of the third day of the Super League on Wednesday.

Qalandars recorded an exciting seven-runs victory to register their fifth win in five matches. Tigers did well to restrict Qalandars to 104 for 3 despite skipper Sohail Akhtar’s unbeaten 49 and Ben Dunk’s 31 runs.

Tigers tried their best to pull off a victory but Sohail Tanvir and Mohammad Zahid with two wickets each, backed by Chris Jordan’s Ahmed Daniyal’s tight overs, upset their plans.

Earlier, Bangla Tigers won the toss and opted to field. Qalandars got off to a shocking start when their opener Tom Banton got bowled to George Garton’s fifth delivery for a duck. Garton ensured that it was a wicket-madien over too.

Sohail Akhtar hit two successive boundaries off Mujeeb Ur Rehman in the second over.

Opener Sharjeel Khan cut Garton past point for a boundary off this first ball of the third over but could get only eight runs in the over.

Tigers introduced Sri Lanka’s 18-year-old medium pacer Matheesha Pathirana, who wavered in his length, and Akhtar smashed him for two consecutive boundaries to take 18 runs off that over.