A truly historic encounter ended with the first-ever GOLDEN BALL in cricketing history as Levante made their long-awaited debut against Madrid United in the Dream11 European Cricket Series Alicante.
A truly historic encounter ended with the first-ever GOLDEN BALL in cricketing history as Levante made their long-awaited debut against Madrid United in the Dream11 European Cricket Series Alicante.
Two evenly-matched sides faced off with Levante winning the toss and electing to take first use of the pitch. Sharad Brahmbhatt provided the Levante glue, batting throughout the innings for a patient 28 off 23 balls, with Shakeel Hafiz, Tariq Afridi (27 off 12) and Furqan Zameer all making useful contributions as Levante posted a challenging 109 off their allocation.
Madrid United motored along at the start with all-rounder Robiul Khan (19 off 10 balls) finding the fence with ease, adding to an impressive bowling spell of 1-14.
However, the talented Tariq Afridi changed the course of the game with a wicket in his first over to peg Madrid United back, finishing with 2-10 off his couple of overs. With the game still in the balance, Ajmal Ilyas took a couple of wickets in his first over, including the prize wicket of Madrid United skipper Qadar Nawaz for 29 off 18 balls.
Still Madrid United hung in there and wicket keeper Waqar Zafar refused to accept defeat and kept his side in the match with some lusty blows. With 17 required off the last over, Waqar Zafar (41 off 16 balls) hit a boundary off the first ball off Abbas Azhar, before a couple of twos with a dropped catch thrown into the mix. With 9 off 3 balls needed, a dot ball was followed by a massive SIX to reduce the equation down to three to win off the last ball. After a sloppy misfield, a two was mustered meaning the first-ever GOLDEN BALL in cricketing history in the event of a tie with scores level.
The new Dream11 European Cricket Series Alicante Golden Ball regulation means that in the event of a tie, the batting side stays at the crease and has to score two or more to force a win. In a historic moment for European Cricket, Waqar Zafar’s edge flew to the third man boundary to hand a tense victory to Madrid United.
