Abu Dhabi T10 League 2019: George Garton's last over heroics inspires Qalandars to three-wicket win
The final day of the Abu Dhabi T10 League 2019’s league stage witnessed a high-voltage clash between the Delhi Bulls and the Qalandars. The low-scoring encounter went down to the wire and ultimately, the Qalandars prevailed over their opponents.
Earlier, the Delhi Bulls had won the toss and skipper Eoin Morgan showed no hesitation in electing to bat first. The Sri Lankan duo of Angelo Mathews (5) and Kusal Perera (14) opened the innings for the Delhi-based franchise however, Mujeeb Ur Rahman (2/9) sent them back to the pavilion inside the first three overs.
Soon, the Qalandars ran through the middle order of their rivals as Morgan (4), Sherfane Rutherford (2), Waheed Ahmed (1) and Will Jacks (8) could not contribute much to the scoreboard.
It seemed like the Qalandars would keep the Bulls down to 70 or 80 runs in the 10 overs however, Mohammad Nabi's (48) late upsurge took his team to 98/8 in the first innings. English leg-spinner Adil Rashid (11*) too played a cameo at the end as he smashed a four and a six in his five-ball knock. George Garton (2/9) impressed the fans with his left-arm fast bowling.
Chasing a modest target of 99, the Qalandars kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Zaheer Khan (2/8) executed a double strike in the fourth over to reduce Dawid Malan's men to 40/4.
The 25-year-old Kent batsman, Tom Kohler-Cadmore (27) saved the day for his team with a quick-fire knock which consisted of 2 fours and 2 sixes. The equation had come down to 12 runs off 9 deliveries when Garton (10*) joined hands with Jordan Clark (13*) on the fall of the seventh wicket.
Waheed conceded just 2 runs in the next 3 balls as Qalandars needed 10 runs off the final over. Clark took 5 runs from the first three deliveries but the hearts of the Qalandars’ fans skipped a beat when tail-ender Garton took the strike. He had faced only a single ball which had hit him on the pads.
The Englishman showed no nerves and whacked a four and a maximum of the next two balls of Ravi Rampaul (1/26) to guide his team to a 3-wicket win.
With this victory, the Qalandars have claimed the top spot on the standings with 7 points from 6 matches.