West Indies left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein struck like lightning on Morrisville Samp Army's batting order in the Qualifier 1 of T10 League 2023 at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on December 8. Hosein dismissed five batters of Faf du Plessis’ brigade to lead New York Strikers to a 41-run win and the final which will be played on December 9.
Chasing a target of 122, Hosein's triple strike pushed the Samp Army on the back foot. He started with the wicket of Andries Gous. He followed it up with the wicket of Dewald Brevis and Ibrahim Zadran to complete his hat-trick. He conceded just a single run in his over.
In his next over, Hosein dismissed Faf du Plessis who scored eight runs. On the ball of his second over, he got the wicket of Najibullah Zadran to complete his fifer. His bowling figures of 5/6 is the best bowling figures of the season surpassing Chennai Braves’ Mohammad Amir’s 4/7.
Samp Army were reduced to 14/6 in the fifth over. After Hosein's fifer, Jason Holder contributed with an 11-ball 22 cameo. Muhammad Jawadullah picked up a couple of wickets whereas Sunil Narine picked up one to reduce Samp Army to 39/8. Qais Ahmad prevented the side from getting bowled out. He smashed two fours and as many sixes in the unbeaten 13-ball 31. Samp Army managed to post 80/9 on the board but lost the match by 41 runs.
Earlier, Rahmanullah Gurbaz's half-century helped the Strikers get off to a good start despite Muhammad Waseem, Niroshan Dickwella, and skipper Kieron Pollard failing to score in double digits. Gurbaz scored 56 runs from 28 balls including four fours and five sixes. Later, Asif Ali's cameo and Chamika Karunaratne's solitary maximum in the slog overs helped the Strikers post 121/5 on the board.
In the previous edition’s auction, Hosein was picked for his base price of Rs 1 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). He got to play just one match for a struggling SRH against Delhi Capitals (DC). He managed to dismiss Mitchell Marsh but conceded 40 runs from his quota of four overs. SRH ended up winning the match by nine runs.
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