That's it from us for the day. Hope you enjoyed the coverage. I, Akshay Bhide along with my co-commentator Vikhyat Jain sign off. Tata. Bye bye.
Sohail Akhtar, MOM, winning skipper: Great feeling. Our bowling and batting has been wonderful. We are lucky to have an excellent bowler like Chris Jordan.
Sohail Akhtar is the Man of the Match for his fantastic knock of 71* of just 31 balls.
Akshay: It was Pollard who won the toss and put Qalandars in to bat. They didn’t had the best of the start as Sharjeel departed to Narine early in the innings. Skipper Akhtar joined Banton and they put a very good partnership as they kept on taking the bowlers. Akhtar was brilliant as he anchored the innings nicely. He played some sensational strokes as he brought up his fifty. The Gladiators failed to pick wickets as the Qalandars posted 118 on the board for the loss of 4 wickets. Rampaul was good for Gladiators as he started and finished the innings well for them. Akhtar remained unbeaten on 71 of just 31 balls which powered them to a very good total which proved to be too much for the Gladiators.
Akshay: The chase began nicely for the Gladiators as Shahzad and Delport played some nice strokes. The spinners were brought in and the run out of Delport in the 5th over changed the whole complexion of the game as the partnership was broken. Shahzad too departed in the same over to Afridi trying to up the ante for 27. Sultan Ahmed bowled a brilliant over as he struck twice in the 6th over picking the big wicket of Pollard. That wicket almost sealed the game for Qalandars as the lower order tried their level best but couldn’t come close to the total as they fell short by 33 runs. Sultan Ahmed was sensational with the ball as he picked 2 wickets. Death over specialist Jordan was exceptional as he picked 3 wickets giving away only 8 runs.
Akshay: So a comprehensive performance by Qalandars as they stay unbeaten in the tournament. They prove to be too strong for the Gladiators as they fail to chase down 119 against a very good Qalandars bowling line up and fall short by 33 runs.
OVER 10.0
Deccan Gladiators
85/8
Imran Tahir
9(5)
Ravi Rampaul
7(5)
Azmatullah Omarzai
0-10(1.0)
New bowling spell
Career
Azmatullah Omarzai
21 yrs
Best
0/17
INNINGS1
WICKETS0
ECON17
AVG0.00
9.6 Azmatullah Omarzai to Imran Tahir
6 SIXX!!!! full on the off-side, Tahir swings his bat at this and gets lucky, a maximum for him over the cover-point region. Tahir indeed enjoyed the shot, a laugh shared between Afridi and Tahir.
9.5 Azmatullah Omarzai to Ravi Rampaul
1 Again fuller on the stumps, Rampaul with his head up looks to hit it big, but no timing whatsoever and gets only a single on the on-side