Match Details
Skipper Moises Henriques brought himself into the attack in the following over and scalped a massive breakthrough of Heinrich Klaasen 1(3) to hand Freedom a commanding position in the contest. Nauman Anwar and Imad Wasim kept pegging away and added 53 runs for the 4th wicket but the Freedom bowlers were successful in drying up the boundaries in the middle overs. Anwar 48(37) tried to break the shackles but was beaten by Dane Piedt.
Shimron Hetmyer and Wasim were unable to time the ball but they managed to drag the game at the cue end of the innings. The Guyanese southpaw Hetmyer was dropped by Saurabh Netravalkar in the 18th over and he punished Freedom by swatting a much-needed maximum in the penultimate ball of the over. Wasim 43*(38) and Hetmyer orchestrated 11 runs of the following over and ensured a victory. Hetmyer was dismissed in the final over 23(19) but Shubham Ranjane scored back-to-back boundaries and made sure there were no more hiccups in the chase.
Earlier in the day, after being invited to bat first, Imad Wasim provided an early breakthrough to the Orcas by uprooting the Australian opener Matthew Short 2(3) in the first over of the contest. The Orcas’ skipper Wayne Parnell then trapped Mukhtar Ahmed 5(5) on the front pad with a brilliant nip-backer. Having lost two quick wickets inside the powerplay, the New Zealand batter Glenn Phillips stepped on the gas straightaway and released some pressure. However, his counterattacking innings of 20(13) was ceased by Cameron Gannon.
Washington Freedom managed to orchestrate 47 runs off the powerplay after some early blows as skipper Moises Henriques joined forces with Andries Gous to stabilize the innings. Both the right-handers batted with patience and added a much-needed 44 runs for the 4th wicket. The left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh broke their stand as Gous 28(33) holed out in the deep. To aggravate the situation, Henriques also threw his wicket away in the following over after accumulating 24(19).
The left-arm spin duo of Imad Wasin and Harmeet Singh stemmed the flow of runs in the middle overs as the Washington innings went haywire. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals but a valiant knock from Akeal Hosein 33*(22) helped them post a respectable total on board. Harmeet Singh (2/24) was the pick of the bowlers for the Orcas. Skipper Wayne Parnell also clinched a couple of wickets despite being a touch expensive. Stick around for the post-match presentation!