T10: Wanindu Hasaranga spins Deccan Gladiators to their fourth win as Chennai's batting implodes

Deccan Gladiators rose to the second spot on the points table with a 5 wicket win over The Chennai Braves in the second fixture of Abu Dhabi T10 on Friday. The Chennai Braves batting lineup imploded in front of some smart bowling and the team could only manage 57 runs in the first innings of the match. Gladiators’ Wanindu Hasaranga was the pick of the bowlers who broke the back of the Braves middle order with figures of 3 wickets for 9 runs from two overs. The loss was Chennai Braves’ sixth of this edition in which they are the only side without a win against their name.

In their chase, Deccan Gladiators looked in real hurry to notch up a win and went into attack mode from ball one. However, the approach proved to be counter-productive as they lost early wickets with all batsmen trying to clear the boundary. After Nuwan Pradeep removed Tom Kohler-Cadmore in the first over, Mark Deyal got the wickets of Tom Moores and Najibullah Zadran in the second over. Interestingly, the same over also saw two catches being dropped by The Chennai Braves fielders.

In the next over by Angelo Perera, another rash shot brought about Odean Smith’s downfall to raise hopes in the Chennai camp. However, poor catching came back to haunt the bowling team again when Ravi Bopara dropped opener Tom Banton off Deyal’s bowling. He could add only five more runs to his total though before depositing a full-toss straight down the throat of Bhanuka Rajapaksa at long-on to give Perera his second wicket of the night. Post that, David Wiese and Andre Russell ensured there were to be no more hiccups as they wrapped up the chase in the sixth over.

Rajapaksa’s havoc proves to be a false dawn

Earlier, with The Chennai Braves in desperate need of a win, things looked bright for once when opener Rajapaksa started the innings with a flurry of boundaries. But it was to prove to be a false dawn and his stint at the crease came to an end on the final delivery of the second over when he was snapped up by Hasaranga at the square-leg boundary. That was to prove Hasaranga’s first mark on the match. He made an impression again in the next over, this time as a fielder, when he saved five runs for his team with an acrobatic effort on the boundary rope. When he was introduced as a bowler in the fourth over, he didn’t waste any time to put The Chennai Braves on the backfoot by getting Perera stumped. In the next over, Sultan Ahmed brought an end to Mohammad Shahzad’s laborious stay at the crease. Hasaranga was back in the thick of things in the next over when he sent Dasun Shanaka and Deyal on consecutive deliveries to reduce The Chennai Braves to 38/5.

Having lost three wickets in three balls, the batting side could not recover and ended with the lowest total in this edition of the tournament. After Rajapaksa’s departure, no batsman could move into double figures and Rumman Raees and Andre Russell picked up two wickets apiece to skittle out Braves for a dismal 57.

Brief scores: Deccan Gladiators 60/5 (David Wiese 20*, Tom Banton 19, Mark Deyal 2-12) beat The Chennai Braves 57/10 (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 12, Dasun Shanaka 8, Wanindu Hasaranga 3-9).