Andre Fletcher leads Pakhtoon’s charge to down Bengal Tigers

The second round of the T10 league opened with a pulsating encounter between Pakhtoons and Bengal Tigers at the Sharjah Stadium. Andre Fletcher extended his belligerent form in the 10-over format. The West Indian batsman struck 47 from 18 balls and helped Pakhtoons chase the target of 94 runs.

After the completion of the first group round, the teams now faced opponents which they had not met before. Pakhtoons won the toss and inserted Bengal Tigers to bat first. Jason Roy and Sunil Narine looted 26 runs from the first two overs. RP Singh halted the march with a double-wicket over. Tigers found themselves languishing at 47/4 after five overs.

Sherfane Rutherford stepped up for the Tigers as he carted Shahid Afridi for back to back sixes. Rutherford’s stay was terminated as a virtue of a runout and the dismissal snatched the momentum from the Tigers’ innings. The Bengal side managed only 16 runs in the next three overs and their innings folded at 93/6 in 10 overs.

Afghanistan’s mystery spinner Mujeeb Rehman gave away only two runs in his opening over and also sent back Sharafuddin Ashraf. However, hopes of the comeback were quickly dashed by the pair of Andre Fletcher and Shafiqullah. The former smashed the ball over the park while the latter dismantled Mujeeb in his final over. Fletcher was especially severe on Morne Morkel as he collected 26 runs from the South African bowler.

In the first four overs of the chase, Pakhtoons had tamed the Tigers. After Shafiqullah and Fletcher, Colin Ingram and Cameron Delport took the team past 93 runs with 15 balls to spare. Andre Fletcher was adjudged Man of the Match for his stunning performance. The Caribbean batsman enjoys the top position in the run-getters for this tournament.

The T10 action will continue uninterrupted for the next four days. The playoffs shall be played on 1st December and the winner of the T10 will be decided on 2nd December.