In Match No. 11 of the inaugural edition of the International League T20, Mumbai Indians’ sister franchise MI Emirates was up against Kolkata Knight Riders’ sister franchise Abu Dhabi Knight Riders on Saturday (January 21) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. During the match, a bizarre incident took place that involved MI Emirates bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi. The Afghanistan pacer was handed the new ball, and when he bowled his first ball of the spell in the second over of the game, he bowled a bizarre no-ball. The ball flew straight over the wicketkeeper’s head and landed outside the 30-yard circle before crossing the boundary rope.
The ball slipped out of the pacer’s hand, which resulted in five extra runs for the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders. And the video of that incident has gone viral on social media since then.
The epic fail by the bowler has invited various hilarious reactions from the fans.
Talking about the match, then, the MI team led by Kieron Pollard won the contest by five wickets after they chased down the target of 171 runs on the last ball of the match. For the Emirates, Afghanistan cricketer Najibullah Zadran and legendary all-rounder DJ Bravo scored a total of 25 runs in the final over of the match, which was bowled by Andre Russell, to seal the dramatic win. While Bravo faced the first four balls and scored 6, 2, 4, and 1, Zadran was at the strike for the final two balls, and he smacked back-to-back sixes to seal the deal for his team.
With the win over the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, MI Emirates maintained their perfect record in the league. They have won all three matches played so far, but due to their low net run rate (NRR), they are behind the Desert Vipers and Gulf Giants in the points table, whereas Saturday’s defeat was Abu Dhabi Knight Riders’ fifth straight in this year’s competition. They are languishing at the bottom of the points table with 0 points from five matches.
