Mirwais Ashraf the right-arm fast-medium bowler struck with four wickets in his spell helped Balkh Legends to pick up their third win in Afganistan Premier League. Legends beat Nangarhar Leopards by 25 runs in the ninth clash of the series. Batting first legends posted a total of 143-7 in their twenty overs. Leopards chases ended in the first ball of the final over with 25 runs short of the target.
Leopards won the toss and elected to bowl first struck in the first over to send Usman Ghani back to the pavilion for naught. McClenaghan gave them a perfect start, but two of the best T20 batsmen in the world, Gayle and Munro added 55 runs for the second wicket to help Legends recover from the blow they had in the first over.
Mujeeb’s bowled the ninth over of the innings which saw both the batsmen dismissed. Ravi Bopara and Ikram Ali Khil departed soon after leaving Legends 82-5 in the 13th over. The contributions from Nabi and Naib help them post a decent total on board.
Chasing a modest total, Leopards also lost their opener in the first over. Another opener Devcich added 28 runs with Johnson Charles(17 runs) on the second wicket and 35 runs for the third wicket with Shahid (23 runs). Rahmat was the fourth man to depart after scoring 18 runs. They required another 49 runs in 34 balls to win the match with Devcich at the other end. However, once Mirwais dismissed Devcich who scored a brilliant 48 and picked up two more wickets of Ben Cutting and McClenaghan in the 18th over.
Leopards couldn’t recover from the collapse and eventually were all out for 118 in 19.1 overs. They lost their last five wickets for just five runs. Mirwais is the player of the match for his brilliant spell which read 4-0-19-4.
Kandahar Knights will take on Paktia Panthers in the 10th match in Sharjah.
