Dubai: Samit Patel, whose international cricket career has often got derailed on fitness issues, proved that he can still be a matchwinner through the deadliest bowling spell in the ongoing edition of the Pakistan Super League. On Saturday night, Patel produced a spell of four wickets for just five runs from his four overs to bowl Lahore Qalandars to an easy eight-wicket win over defending champions Quetta Gladiators at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Patel, who was ignored by England since the Sharjah Test match against Pakistan in 2015, is now among the most sought after allrounders for T20 Leagues around the world. Though Patel was born in Leicester in England his parents hails from Bhavangar, in Gujarat, India.
Patel removed all the top Quetta batsmen - starting from opener Jason Roy for six, captain Sarfaraz Ahmed for one and the dangerous Azam Khan and Ben Cutting for ducks. So deadly was Patel that Quetta, after Patel’s four overs, were reeling at 21 for six before Sohail Khan (32) lifted Quetta to a score of 98 for 9 in 20 overs.
Speaking after the match, Patel said: “I have not seen a wicket like this with so much turn for a T20 match. When it is spinning like that I felt you should try and take as many wickets. Thankfully, today was my day.”
Chasing the easy target, veteran Mohammad Hafeez and Ben Dunk - with unbeaten knocks of 39 and 30 runs respectively - steered the team to victory in just 11.5 overs. Incidentally, Patel had earlier displayed his batting skills with a knock of 71 against Quetta in Lahore on March 3.
Brief scores: Lahore Qalandars bt Quetta Gladiators by 8 wkts. Quetta 98 for 9 in 20 overs (Sohail Khan 32, Samit Patel 4 for 5, Shaheen Afridi 2 for 20, Raja Farzan 2 for 24) vs Lahore 100 for 2 in 11.5 overs (Fakhar Zaman 20, Mohammad Hafeez 39n.o, Ben Dunk 30n.o, Mohammad Nawaz 2 for 9) Man of the match: Samit Patel.
