ILT20 Development 2023 Points Table: Updated standings after Marvels vs Thunderbolts, Match 12
On Friday, October 6, the doubleheader of the ILT20 Development League kicked off at the ICC Academy in Dubai. Blitzers and Dynamos took on each other at 6 PM IST whereas Marvels and Thunderbolts clashed off later in the day at 10 PM IST.
In the first game, Dynamos put on a dominant show with the bat as their batters blasted their way to a competitive score of 178. Blitzers lost their way during the chase due to a constant fall of wickets and were ultimately restricted to 148.
However, the second game of the day turned out to be a close contest. Thunderbolts batted first and set up a formidable target of 163. Despite receiving some early setbacks, Marvels were able to chase down the target with only three balls to spare.
Following the conclusion of both fixtures, Pearls retain their position at the top with an NRR of 0.146. The team now has three wins in their last four games played so far. Marvels suge to the second spot following their nerve-wracking victory in today’s fixture. They now have three wins in five games with a negative NRR rating of -0.042.
The braves hold on to the third spot and are sitting with a decent-looking NRR of 0.889. They have so far won two out of three games. Blitzers and Dynamos rank 4th and 5th respectively.
Dynamos were finally able to salvage a win today which puts them ahead of Thunderbolts who are languishing at the bottom of the points table. Meanwhile, Thunderbolts are sitting with an impoverished NRR of -0.759 with a solitary win in four matches.
Dynamos put an end to their disappointing losing streak while Marvel advances to the second position
The Dynamos' batting finally came good against the Blitzers today. The top three batters Hameed Khan, Samal Udawaththa, and Fahad Nawaz made valuable contributions at the top which put Dynamos in a very commanding position within the first 10 overs.
Following their dismissals, the Blitzers bowlers featuring the likes of Dhruv Parashar and Muhammad Uzair Khan struck with a few more wickets to put a temporary half to the scoring rate. However, Muhammad Irfan and Muhammad Shahdad played some blistering cameos of 22(8) and 25(12) at the backend of the innings to power Dynamos to 178.
During the second innings, the Dynamos bowlers were all over Blitzers during the first 6 overs. Muhammad Asif-I and Vikum Bandara Sanjaya picked three wickets in the powerplay to reduce the Blitzers to 15-3 within four overs. However, Ali Abid and Fayyaz Ahmed stitched a decent partnership to bring the Blitzers back into the game.
But right before the 15th over, Blitzers lost Abid and Fayyaz in quick succession which significantly dented their scoring rate. Uzair Bacha played a valiant unbeaten cameo of 49 (26) but with virtually no support from the other end, Blitzers fell 31 runs short of their required target.
Thunderbolts and Marvels clashed in a rather fascinating encounter that went down the wire. Thunderbolts were sent in to bat and lost their skipper Rohan Mustafa very early for 13(7). His counterpart, Sandeep Singh played a decent hand of 39(21) before being removed by Taimoor Bhatti during the 6th over.
At a little over halfway stage Thunderbolts had lost four wickets and had a score of 78 on the board. Rameez Shahzad took stock of the situation and scored an unbeaten 40(29) to keep the Thunderbolts’ engine running during the middle overs.
He received a fair amount of support from Sagar Kalyan, Hazrat Luqman, and Umair Ali Khan who chipped in with double-digit scores to propel Thunderbolts to 162/7.
The chase got underway in a resounding fashion as Mayank Chowdary and Ashwant Valthapa put on a robust 60-run stand for the first wicket to set the tone for Marvels. However, they did experience a wobble during the middle phase of the innings thanks to some terrific bowling efforts from Wasim Akram, Rohan Mustafa, and Shahbaz Ali.
Nevertheless, the team did not lose their composure as Rahul Chopra and Danish Qureshi put on a match-winning partnership towards the backend of the innings. The duo hit the winning runs during the last over of the match with three balls to spare.