After last weekend’s forty over games, attention focussed on the T20 league this week.
Saturday got under way with a Division 1 match between the Royal Challengers and NL Tigers. The weather was less than ideal in the morning (although was superb for the later matches), and resulted in an early wicket, as Anol Azad slipped and was run out without facing a ball. His opening partner, Ali Raza is in top form this summer and produced yet another superb innings, 91 from 59 balls. Fahad Hossain (69 from 36 balls) joined him in a 117 run 3rd wicket partnership, and the Tigers made 210/6 from 20 overs. The Royal Challengers were never really in the hunt as they were unable to keep up with the run rate. Ranvir Rana made 72, but they fell well short, making 161/8 from their 20 overs.
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In the second match, NSK batted first, starting well – 64/1 in the 7th over, with Talha Riaz (38) leading the way. Praveen Manhas (3/32) slowed the scoring, and NSK totalled 147/7 in their 20 overs. This looked to be a winning total after Nick Baxter dismissed both Avengers openers with only 6 on the board. This brought in Rahul Vashishtha, and he played a superb innings, a chanceless 104* to lead Avengers to victory with 13 balls to spare.
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In the final match of the day, the Eagles bowled first against the Stars. Mohammed Asim took 3 wickets but the Stars made 126/7, with useful contributions from Aakash Halder (29), Partha Carbon (23) and Ainul Fayad (25). Mohammed Asim dominated the Eagles reply, after the Stars had taken early wickets. Coming in at 60/4, Asim hit 49 from 28 balls to take the Eagles to a 5 wicket victory with more than 5 overs remaining
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The weather continued to cooperate on Sunday, and the opening match featured another century from Rahul Vashishtha. His last four innings have been 108, 153, 104*, and today’s 105; so far in August he has made 519 runs. Today’s century was made from 65 balls, and he was dismissed from the final ball of the innings as Avengers made 190/6. The Tigers bowled well, led by Fahad Hossain with 2/14, and Ali Raza with 2/26.
The Avengers secured the crucial wicket of Ali Raza in the second over, well caught at deep square leg by Bharath Shetty (one of three good catches in the deep. Arafat al Nabi hit well for his 52, but the Avengers took wickets regularly keeping the run rate high. Jaspreet Bajwa led the bowlers with 3/38, and the Avengers kept their impressive unbeaten record intact.
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The final match of the weekend went down to the last over, as the Hurricanes beat the Eagles by 4 wickets. The Eagles made 177/6, with Adeel Illyas contributing 87 and Mohammed Asim 38. Wahidur Rahman took 3/26. In reply, Chowdhury Safin Ibn Fayez (37) and Daiyan Ahmed (63) put on 110 for the second wicket, but then wickets started to tumble (Abdullah Khalid taking 3/33), and the Hurricanes scrambled 40 runs from the last 4 overs to win.
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