Mohammad Taimur sealed Delhi Bulls’ 31-run victory over Chennai Braves in the 26th match of the 10th day of the Abu Dhabi T10 at the Abu Dhabi Zayed Cricket Stadium. Delhi Bulls reached a challenging 119 for 4 in 10 overs. Taimoor’s spell saw Chennai Braves post only 88 for 7 in 10 overs. Chennai opener Dan Lawrence hit 45 in vain.
Delhi Bulls won the toss and elected to bat. Debutant Rahmanullah Gurbaz started promisingly hitting Patrick Dooley for a six to mid-wicket off the second ball and also the fourth ball over back square leg for another six. Dooley clean bowled Gurbaz for 12 with the last ball.
Banton joined Rilee Rossouw to hit the last ball of Sam Cooke’s second over for a boundary to long-on. Banton also picked a boundary off Sikandar Raza’s last delivery of the third over. In the fourth over, Banton hit Sabir Ali’s second delivery for a six towards mid-wicket and the third for a boundary. Rossouw hit three consecutive sixes off Henry Brookes in the fifth over but disappeared to the last ball, caught leg earlier for 26. At the halfway point, Delhi Bulls were 68 for 2.
The sixth over spelled the end of Banton’s knocks as Cook got him out caught at mid-off by Sikandar Raza for 35. His 17-ball knock had four boundaries and one six. Sikandar Raza tightened the run flow as he bowled a good seventh round while conceding just eight runs.
Tim David hits James Fuller over mid-wicket for a six. The next square he drove to the back fence. He also got a boundary to third man. These hits took Delhi Bulls past the 100 mark. The ninth over was Najbullah Zadran’s chance to get the run going but Carlos Brathwaite prevented him from scoring big. Brathwaite conceded just four runs from the ninth over.
The last over from Fuller started with two consecutive wide deliveries. The remaining deliveries were narrowly bowled and he even got David out for 12. David scored 22 runs off 12 balls before he was caught at sweeper cover by Dooley. Zadran bowled the last delivery for a boundary and remained unbeaten on 13 to help Delhi Bulls reach 119 for 4 in 10 overs.
Daniel Lawrence and Kobe Herft started Chennai’s chase towards the goal. Young UAE left-armer Aayan Afzal Khan opened the attack for Delhi and Lawrence picked two boundaries. Fazalhaq Farooq scored a brilliant second as he bowled just four rounds. Lawrence hit Aayan Khan’s first delivery for a six over the bowler’s head. He also hit the last delivery for a boundary. Michael Stanley’s fourth over was just as tight, except Lawrence clipped the fourth ball for a boundary to third man.
Mohammad Taimur struck with the first ball of the fifth over off the clean bowling of Herft for 9. Carlos Brathwaite hit Taimur for a straight boundary but fell to the next caught and bowled for 4. One ball later, Taimur also removed James Fuller, who was bowled by David caught in the long run – for 2.
At the halfway mark, Chennai Braves were struggling at 48 for 3. Skipper Dwayne Bravo, who introduced himself, was hit by Lawrence with a boundary off the first ball, but gave only four singles and a double from the remaining five. .
Taimur picked his fourth winner and removed Michael Pepper who was first to Gurbaz for 5. Lawrence too was followed by Bravo’s Tom Banton for 45.
Taimur’s superb spell made things difficult for Chennai as they needed to score 49 from the last two overs. Vriitya Aravind with his captain Sikandar Raza was on top. Aravind hit Fazalhaq for a boundary on the first ball past point and also hit the fourth ball for the second boundary. He reduced the runs required to 39 off the last six balls.
Raza hit the first ball of Stanley’s last over for a boundary but fell on the second ball which hit high to Gurbaz then for 7. Bravo took an excellent catch at square leg to get Henry Brookes to the fifth ball of the match from Raza and won the match by 31 runs.
Short reviews:
Delhi Bulls vs Chennai Braves by 31 runs. Delhi Bulls 119 for 4 in 10 overs (Rilee Rossouw 26, Tom Banton 35, Tim David 22) Chennai Braves 88 for 7 in 10 overs (Dan Lawrence 45, Mitchell Stanley 2 for 16, Mohammad Taimur 4 for 8)
Man of the Match: Mohammad Taimur