The second season of the ILT20 was a closely contested one. At the end of the league stage, two teams were on 12 points, two on 10 points and two on 8 points. Just one or two matches with a different result, and we could have had completely different teams in the playoffs. That made the high-impact performances all the more crucial. Some were more visible than others, but not all special performances were reflected in the top runs and wickets tallies. Here’s a look at some of the key ones.
Dushmantha Chameera
On the face of it, Chameera had a good, but not special season. He took 10 wickets, a long way off the season high of 17 by Fazalhaq Farooqi and Waqar Salamkheil. But Chameera played only seven matches, and made crucial contributions nearly every time. It was not just the wickets and the economy rate, it was the quality of wickets taken, while keeping runs down despite bowling the tough overs – powerplay and death. He did it against MI Emirates, while snaring Tim David.
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Against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, he took two wickets in the second over, and had a catch dropped off him in the 17th at the death, while giving up only three runs to a rampaging Laurie Evans and Sam Hain. He had a catch dropped at the death against Desert Vipers too, which allowed the batter Adam Hose to smack two sixes at the end of the innings. If that catch had been taken, Chameera would have had 2 for 16 in 3.1 overs, with a new batter to bowl to. In the games Capitals lost, Chameera was one of the players who made life difficult for the opposition. The win against Vipers was particularly important, because if the match result was reversed, it was they who would have qualified rather than Capitals.
Nicholas Pooran and Kusal Perera
They were MI Emirates’ one-two punch. They were second and third on the run-scorers’ list, and their combination made Emirates difficult to beat. Pooran’s lowest score in 10 innings was 17, while Perera reached double figures in all but one innings. Perera was the destroyer at the top, striking at 157.3, and Pooran was unstoppable in the middle and end, with a strike rate of 170.2.
Both had only two fifties each, which illustrated how the modern T20 game cannot be judged by these sort of landmarks. The key thing with both of them was how they consistently made match-defining runs, either getting the innings off to a good start or finishing well, often both together. Their form benefitted Emirates in tangible ways (quick starts, powerful finishes) and intangible ones – such as drawing overs from the opposition’s best bowlers, which made the job easier for those batting around them.
Sikandar Raza vs Wanindu Hasaranga
While Raza was the player of the tournament, and a central figure in Capitals’ march to the final, Hasaranga’s contributions to the Desert Vipers were more under-rated, because he played only eight games. It’s not a stretch to say that if Hasaranga had been available for a greater part of the tournament, Vipers could have well ended up in the playoffs, and then who knows how things would have panned out. Of their four total wins, Hasaranga was part of three, all against teams who eventually qualified for the playoffs.
Hasaranga made 69 runs off 44 balls in those three games, and took 4 for 60 in 12 overs. Outstanding, any which way you slice it. Raza was equally good, and where he won out over Hasaranga was in his availability. He played in all of Dubai Capitals’ games. He was good enough to be one of only six batters who topped 300 runs, while also being joint fourth in the wickets tally, with 13 scalps at an economy rate of 6.3. It was a standout show, and deserved all the accolades it got.
(This story is authored by Saurabh Somani who is a Pondicherry-based freelance cricket writer. In his spare time, he watches the game anyway.)