MI Emirates captain Nicholas Pooran showered praise on the team’s bowlers after their convincing nine-wicket win against Sharjah Warriorz at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah in the ongoing ILT20 on Saturday.
The Warriorz posted 176 runs on the board after Pooran decided to bowl first. Fazalhaq Farooqi continued his good form, returning with impressive figures of 4-24 in his quota of four overs. The Afghanistan seamer accounted for Johnson Charles, Jason Roy, Keemo Paul, and Sharjah Warriorz captain Tim Southee.
On the other hand, Tom Banton scored another match-winning knock of 102 runs off just 55 balls for MI Emirates with the help of 10 fours and six maximums.
Nicholas Pooran said in the post-match presentation, “Happy we could continue our record here. Batting is something we keep talking about. We need to work really hard on all three facets of the game to win. The bowlers have been fabulous for us, they were challenged today but big credit goes to them. Responsibility is something we talk about, both these batters took responsibility and won the game for us. This is what we keep stressing about.”
Tom Banton was awarded Player of the Match for his brilliant knock.
Banton said after the win, “My first 8 or 9 balls I was on zero, funny how cricket works. Sometimes you need to just respect that and believe you can catchup later. It was a really good wicket, it struggled off my first 25 balls. Feel like I’ve played a bit of T20 cricket now and have a better understanding of my game. You have a bit of responsibility and you take on your matchups, feel like I did that today. It’s something I’ve really thought about. The boundary sizes and the match-ups, the left-right hand combination worked as well. Probably my best hundred considering how my first 8-9 balls went, thought it wasn’t going to work today but cricket is a strange game.”
MI Emirates will next take on Abu Dhabi Knight Riders at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
