Team Abu Dhabi rub ‘Salt’ into the wounds of Chennai Braves

By K.R. Nayar

It seems that there is no way that Chennai Braves are able to win a match. In the first match of the day on Sunday in the Abu Dhabi T10 at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Chennai crashed to their eighth defeat when Team Abu Dhabi registered a seven-wicket win over them.

Phil Salt 

Chennai may have hoped for Abu Dhabi’s spirit to be low after their two defeats. They would have also hoped their batting would finally click especially after their aggressive opener Mohammad Shahzad had started to strike well. In fact, after their opener Bhanuka Rajapaska fell for 14, they were at 75 for 1 at one stage. Then began their usual collapse. After a 49 runs partnership for the second wicket between Shahzad and Dasun Shanaka, none of the rest could force the run flow.

Wicketkeeper Phil Salt took the first of his two catches to remove Rajapaksa off Liam Livingstone. Then Livingstone had Shanaka caught and bowled for 11 and Samiullah Shinwari out for a duck. While the rest of the batsmen failed to cross the double digit mark, Shahzad fought a lone battle scoring 53 off 30 balls with four boundaries and four sixes. In the end Chennai posted 107 for 6.

Salt gave Abu Dhabi a breezy start. He hit the first ball of the first over from Nuwman Pradeep to the boundary and also hit two sixes in that over. Though Paul Stirling and Livingstone fell in the second over from Mark Dayal, Salt continued to play aggressive shots.

Chris Gayle, fresh from his unbeaten 52 against Bangla Tigers in the last match, began with a six to mid-wicket off Curtis Campher. Salt too picked a six in that over by hitting over deep mid-wicket. Thereafter, Salt slog swept another one to deep mid-wicket for another six. In the fifth over, Salt hit Pradeep for two successive sixes. By the half way mark Abu Dhabi had reached 79 for 2.

Roman Walker got hit for 23 runs in the sixth over with Gayle and Salt picking runs freely. Salt fell to the first ball of the seventh over, caught by Khalid Shah off Campher for 63. His 20 ball knock contained seven sixes and four boundaries. Colin Ingram hit two boundaries to help Abu Dhabi reach the target with 18 balls to spare. Gayle remained unbeaten for the second match in succession with 30 runs off 16 balls.