The UAE’s left-arm pacer Shiraz Ahmed bowled a superb last over, bagging three wickets while conceding just one to seal a victory by four runs for Delhi Bulls against the Northern Warriors in the Abu Dhabi T10 2022 at the Abu Dhabi Zayed Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
The Northern Warriors won the toss and elected to bowl. The match got off to an exciting start with Delhi Bulls opener Rilee Rossouw edging the second ball from Mohammad Irfan to the third-man fence. However, Irfan had Rossouw out caught behind on the next delivery.
Opener Tom Banton hit Mark Deyal’s first and fourth balls of the second over for sixes while hitting a boundary of the last to score 18 off it.
Banton continued his way against Abhimanyu Mithun with two fours and a maximum, carving 20 runs. The fourth over from Irfan was a tight one giving away just seven. Junaid Siddique bowled the fifth over, dismissing Jordan Cox on 11 at deep square leg. At the halfway mark, Delhi Bulls were 57/2.
Liam Dawson choked the runs, but Wayne Parnell, who bowled the seventh, got smashed for consecutive boundaries by Tim David. However, Parnell ended Banton’s quickfire knock of 38.
Meanwhile, in the ninth over, David took on Junaid Siddiqui. He hit four boundaries in a row, two fours and two sixes, before Siddiqui had the final laugh. Delhi Bulls took 22 runs off that over.
Wayne Parnell, bowling the last over, was hit for two fours by Imad Wasim. In the end, Delhi Bulls posted a challenging 119/4 in 10 overs.
Northern Warriors’ openers Adam Lyth and Kennar Lewis smashed a boundary each from Imad Wasim’s first over. However, Wasim struck back, dismissing Lewis for six. Waqas Maqsood, on the other hand, got rid of Lyth in the second over. However, Usman Khan stroked a couple of boundaries to follow.
Then, Imad Wasim and Richard Gleeson bowled a tight couple of overs, giving only one boundary. From the fifth over, the big hits commenced. Drakes’ second ball was hit for a six by Usman, while Powell hit consecutive sixes. It took the score to 64/2 at the halfway mark, putting the Warriors on the front foot.
Gleeson struck a vital blow, dismissing Powell for 25 in the sixth over. Meanwhile, Delhi Bulls skipper Dwayne Bravo introduced himself in the seventh and conceded just four runs. It further mounted the required run rate to 14.66.
Maqsood, re-introduced in the eighth over, succumbed under pressure. Sherfane Rutherford hit the third delivery for a six and scored a boundary off the fifth ball.
With 27 runs needed from the last 12 deliveries, it promised to be a tight game.
Usman and Rutherford smashed 20 runs off the penultimate over from Bravo to virtually tilt the match in the Warriors’ favour.
In the last over, Shiraz Ahmed dismissed Rutherford with the second ball. With six required from four balls, the onus was on Usman Khan. However, he got trapped LBW on the fourth ball. Shiraz gave no runs off the fifth ball and dismissed Deyal off the final delivery to win the match by four runs.
Brief scores: Delhi Bulls 119/4 in 10 overs (Tom Banton 38, Tim David 42, Junaid Siddique 2/27) beat Northern Warriors 115/6 in 10 overs (Usman Khan 47, Rovman Powell 25, Sherfane Rutherford 26, Shiraz Ahmed 3/1).
Player of the Match: Shiraz Ahmed
