The Chennai Braves v New York Strikers. T10 Season 6, Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi, UAE. 24th November 2022Chennai Braves braved the challenge from Bangla Tigers through Carlos Brathwaite’s fine allround show to register a 33-runs victory in the Abu Dhabi T10 at the Abu Dhabi Zayed Cricket Stadium on Friday. In the third match of the day, Chennai Braves posted 126 for 6 in 10 overs with Carlos Brathwaite scoring an unbeaten 44. Bangla Tigers were restricted to 93 with Brathwaite bagging four wickets for three runs.
Chennai Braves won the toss and elected to bat. They lost their first wicket to the fourth ball of the first over when non striker Adam Rossington got run out for 3 while trying to get back into the crease. One-drop Michael Pepper began with a boundary to backward point off the last ball of the first over from Rohan Mustafa. Dawid Malan too began to score freely from the second over. He hit Mrittunjoy Chowdhury for two boundaries and a six in the second over. Pepper too hit freely in the third over scoring two consecutive boundaries off Shakib Al Hasan. To the sixth ball Pepper fell for 13 with Iftikhar Ahmed taking a brilliant catch on the long-off fence without losing his balance.
Benny Howell bowled a miserly fourth over giving away just seven runs. Matheesha Pathirana struck a vital blow with first ball of the fifth over by having Dawid Malan caught by Howell at deep extra cover for 27. Runs became hard to come for Chennai Braves when Raza bowled the sixth over. Except for a boundary hit from Brathwaite, all the rest of the deliveries were spot on.
Rohan Mustafa ended Raza’s knock clean bowling him for 10. Brathwaite lit up hopes of the total going past the 100-run mark with a boundary and two sixes off Howell. Though Howell got Ross Whiteley caught and bowled for 2 with the last ball of his over, 18 runs were scored off it. The ninth over from Mrittunjoy Chowdhury too yielded 17 runs with James Fuller hitting a six and a boundary.
The exciting last over saw Brathwaite hit a six off the first ball from Ben Cutting and then score a boundary off the third. Fuller got run out for 12 but Vriitya Aravind hit the first ball he faced for a six and ensure a total of 126 for 6 in 10 overs. Brathwaite remained unbeaten on 44.
Bangla Tigers began their chase losing the prize wicket of Hazratullah Zazai to the third ball of the first over from Sikandra Raza. Pepper at deep mid-wicket took a well-judged catch inside the ropes. Though he lost his balance, Pepper threw the ball up and returned back to the field to complete the catch.
Evin Lewis picked a boundary off Raza’s last delivery while Iftikhar too got another off Olly Stone’s first delivery. Stone struck a vital blow clean bowling Lewis for 4 with the third ball. Iftikhar hit the fifth ball for a six and a boundary off the last ball. The third over was uneventful except for a boundary from Colin Munro off Patrick Dooley and two sixes. Munro and Iftikhat hit one six each off Fuller’s fourth over. Despite that, the required run rate was over 14 runs.
In the fifth over, Brathwaite had Munro caught by Sabir Rao at fine leg for 15. Brathwaite also had Ben Cutting with the next delivery caught by Raza at extra cover to be on a hat-trick chance. Benny Howell prevented that from happening and at the half way mark Bangla Tigers was tottering at 45 for 4.
Iftikhar continued to play his big shots and hit Dooley for two consecutive sixes, first to mid-wicket and the next one over extra covers. With the last ball of that over Dooley got Howell caught and bowled for 4.
With 51 runs needed of the last 18 balls, Raza was hit for a six by Shakib off the fourth ball. The last ball of that over saw Iftikhar run out while backing up at non striker for 49. His knock off 20 balls had two boundaries and five sixes. Raza gave just eights run in that over.
Stone bowled the ninth over giving away only eight runs and also taking the wicket of Shakib Al Hasan caught by Brathwaite at mid-on for 15 with the last ball. With 35 runs needed off the last over, Rohan Mustafa joined Yasir Kaleem but Kaleem got out to Brathwaite caught behind by wicketkeeper Rossington for 1. Brathwaite also clean bowled Mustafa for a duck to return with figures of 4 for 3.
Brief scores:
Chennai Braves bt Bangla Tigers by 33 runs. Chennai Braves 126 for 6 in 10 overs (Dawid Malan 27, Carlos Brathwaite 44n.o) Bangla Tigers 93 in 9.5 overs (Iftikhar Ahmed 49, Olly Stone 2 for 23, Carlos Brathwaite 4 for 3)
Player of the Match: Carlos Brathwaite
