Mohammad Rizwan has been in sublime for in white-ball cricket of late but he is not getting the support he needs from his Sussex teammates. Rizwan’s second consecutive half-century in the ongoing T20 Blast tournament in England went in vain as the other batters failed to rise up to the occasion. After a record-breaking unbeaten 81 on T20 Blast debut, Rizwan scored 58 runs in a losing cause against Gloucestershire at County Ground, Bristol on May 27.
Chasing a target of 194, Rizwan shared a 52-run partnership in powerplay overs with opener Luke Wright. The wicketkeeper-batter was not going all guns blazing and played the anchor role. On the other end, Australian wicketkeeper-batter Josh Philippe failed to get frequents boundaries as well.
Philippe scored a little over run-a-ball. As a result, Rizwan got out in the 16th over of the run chase in an attempt to meet the rising required run rate. He scored 58 runs from 43 deliveries including four fours and two sixes.
In the next over, Philippe lost his wicket to after a 31-ball 35. The middle order-batters had no choice but to swing hard in the slog overs. Pakistan speedster Naseem Shah took advantage of the situation and picked up the wickets of skipper Ravi Bopara and George Garton in the 18th over. In the end, Sussex managed to post 152/8 and lost the match by a considerable margin of 41 runs.
From Gloucestershire, David Payne picked up three wickets whereas Naseem and Paul van Meekeren got two wickets each. However, Benny Howell turned out to be most economical bowler as he conceded 16 runs from his quota of four overs.
Howell was not given a single game by Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 after he was picked for his base price of Rs 40 lakh in the mega auctions. He contributed with a cameo as well helping Gloucestershire post 193/7 after wicketkeeper-batter James Bracey's 70-run knock from 45 deliveries.
Earlier, Rizwan broke Umar Akmal’s record of most runs by a Pakistan batter on T20 Blast debut. Previously, Umar Akmal held the record. Akmal scored 76 runs not out for Leicestershire in 2015 edition of the tournament.
