Zadran powers MI Emirates to last-ball thriller to record three back-to-back wins

Continuing their unbeaten run in the ILT20 tournament, MI Emirates recorded their their third win on the trot after beating Abu Dhabi Knight Riders by five wickets in a last-ball thriller at the Zayed Cricket Stadium here on Saturday.

Dwayne Bravo (15 off 6 balls) deployed his experience of batting in high pressure situations to great effect as he combined with the young Najibullah Zadran (35 off 17 balls), whose two sixes off the final two balls got MI Emirates over the line.  

Chasing a healthy 171, MI Emirates recovered from a jittery start after star wicketkeeper-batter Nicholas Pooran and fellow West Indies batter Andre Fletcher led the counter-attack with a 55-run third wicket partnership. However, the momentum tilted in favour of the home side for a while once the partnership was broken.

Pooran, who received a reprieve on 11 after opening his account with a monster six over long-on, managed to add only nine runs before being dismissed while attempting a second six over deep square. Fletcher, who held firm at one end for the MI Emirates, departed soon after rubbing off the dust from his blade with a calculative 53 off 43 balls.

“It was a great game, it was intense. I was telling (Nicholas) Pooran if we can carry the game to the last over needing 20 runs, and at that moment if we look back at the previous inning that Bravo’s played a great knock and Zadran had been hitting the ball cleanly in the practice games. So I honestly was confident of getting 20 in the last over. It just shows the depth that we have in our batting,” Fletcher said at the post-match presser.

“Kudos to Bravo and Zadran finishing it off. We couldn’t ask anything better, as you can see everyone in the dug-out was celebrating as if we won a final. It shows how happy we are as a team, we do everything as a team. We bleed blue and will continue bleeding blue,” he said.

Faced with a tricky situation, skipper Keiron Pollard brought his batting prowess to good effect with a 23-ball 31, laced with four hits to the fence, but it was his Trinidad teammate Bravo and the Afghanistan southpaw, who provided the finishing touches to the nail-biting clash.

Earlier, Sri Lankan Dhananjaya de Silva’s stroke-filled half century and captain Sunil Narine’s brisk cameo provided the impetus to the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders total of 170/7 even though the MI Emirates bowlers dominated the proceedings right through the innings. De Silva’s knock 40-ball 65 contained eight fours and a couple of sixes. Narine came up with an 18-ball 28, including three fours and a six.

Electing to field, MI Emirates were off to a dream start with the experienced Trent Boult getting rid of opener Kennar Lewis for a duck before Zahoor Khan struck first ball, thanks to Will Smead grabbing a blinder to dismiss Brandon King and reduce the opposition to 34/2. A careless run-out further dented the home side to 48/3 before de Silva and his Sri Lankan teammate Charith Asalanka (23) got into rebuilding mode by adding 45 runs for the fourth wicket. 

Bowling his first over of the tournament, MI Emirates skipper Keiron Pollard ended the flourishing partnership with the scalp of Asalanka, before Fazalhaq Farooqi and Zahoor Khan got the wickets of Andre Russell (13) and de Silva, respectively in quick succession to keep the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in check.