Madrid United Cricket Club won the inaugural Dream11 European Cricket Series held at Sporting Alfas Cricket Club from 2-6 March 2020 in Alicante, Spain.
Recently, we delved deep into Madrid United’s batting prowess.
Here in the final instalment of a two-part analysis, we analyze Madrid United’s bowling performance on their journey towards winning the first-ever Dream11 European Cricket Series tournament.
Bowling Performance - Wickets Taken
On the face of it, Madrid United were actually not great performers with the ball - taking only 23 wickets in seven games.
Crucially, Madrid United saved their best bowling till last by taking five wickets in the final. Restricting Pinatar Pirates to a below-par score of 87, Madrid United romped home with 16 balls to spare, easily winning the match by nine wickets.
Madrid United's economy rate was the second worst in the tournament, conceding more than 11.5 runs per over. Only the Intellectuals bowling proved more expensive, conceding almost 13 runs per over.
The following graph sums up their bowling performance in the tournament. Overall, Madrid United lacked discipline in their bowling department giving away 85 extras behind only Sporting Alfas’ 89.
Conclusion
On their way to becoming the Dream11 European Cricket Series Alicante champions, unlike V.O.C Rotterdam at ECL19, Madrid United were far from invincible. Although their inconsistent bowlers often lacked discipline, their batsmen proved the difference more often than not, repeatedly holding their nerve in crunch situations. Besides, isn’t it true that T10 is a batsman’s game? As ECL founder Daniel Weston himself said, the motive of T10 is to make the sport easy to understand for the viewers. You simply smash the ball as hard as you can.
