Madrid United marched to a final spot with a convincing win over a gallant Levante side winning by 15 runs.
Madrid United marched to a final spot with a convincing win over a gallant Levante side winning by 15 runs.
Batting first, Madrid United made the running from the offset. Opener Qadar Nawaz produced a murderous innings of 65 off 25 balls to set the tone. Abdul Hafeez Niazi amassed 46 off 19 at the death as Madrid United mowed an impressive 153 - the second highest total of the Dream11 European Cricket Series Alicante. Admittedly, it was ultra-tough going in the field, but Azhar Abbas was the pick of the Levante bowlers with 2-28.
In securing a semi-final berth, Levante had shown great nerve, recovering from defeat in a historic Golden Ball finish, to rack up successive high-scoring run chase, but chasing 154, Levante couldn’t make it a hat-trick as the massive target proved a bridge too far.
Spanish international Tauqeer Hussain bowled two miserly overs for eight as Levante fell behind the required run rate from the get go. Wily spinner Ittfaq Ahmed took the key wicket of Furqan Zameer (28 off 17) and despite some monumental late hitting from the talented Tariq Afridi (44 off 18 balls) and Ajmal Ilyas (30 off 10), it was too stiff a task after a sluggish start.
