At the end of a night illuminated by imported talent, the hero of the opening game the third season of DP World International League T20 was an uncapped 20-year-old who aspires to a future with the UAE national team.
With an over left of his debut in big time cricket, Farhan Khan was left with a daunting prospect. He had to defend 12 to tie and 11 to win, and at the other end was one of the format’s greatest ever batters, Kieron Pollard.
The equation was whittled down to six off the last. Pollard drilled a length ball to long on. Everyone held their breath. It fell just short of the boundary rope, and Farhan could breathe again, before he was enveloped by his thrilled Dubai Capitals teammates.
For so much for opening night it seems as though the competition had picked up exactly where it left off 11 months earlier. Deafening pyrotechnics exploding above the Ring of Fire floodlights at Dubai International Stadium on Saturday night. And then fireworks from Nicholas Pooran and Fazalhaq Farooqi setting up a win for MI Emirates against the Capitals on the field.
The same duo were straight back into the old routine in the first game of the UAE T20 franchise tournament’s third season – which was a reprisal of last year’s final.
Farooqi took five for 16, the best figures in the two-seasons-and-one-game history of the ILT20, before captain Pooran blazed a vicious half century.
The night was not short of glitz. There was Bollywood glamour for the opening ceremony. As the players on the field ran through their warm ups, they had to wait for the smog to abate after a dazzling fireworks display from the stadium roof.
As the Bollywood stars were paraded to the crowd from the back of an ILT20-branded Tesla Cybertruck after finishing their set, the lights started to raise ahead of gametime.
The organisers said ticket sales had been going so well ahead of the opener that they expected a full house. It fell a long way short – maybe around half house, taking into account all the seats that were blocked out for the stage for the dancers.
They also said they expected the cricket to remain the star of the show, despite the money shelled out on getting the Bollywood trio in for the night. That, at least, proved correct. The crowd swelled substantially once the cricket itself had started.
To start with, the fare they were presented with was lukewarm. Both sides struggled to score at the start of their innings. The Capitals had been invited to have first use of a patchy-looking pitch, and it was not easy going.
By halfway through their innings they only had 54. They were thankful for Brandon McMullen, the Scotland all-rounder who is in the running to be the ICC’s Associate cricketer of 2024, for reaching 133-8. He made 58 from 42 balls to announce himself to a public who would not likely have known who he was at the start.
Even with his salvo, they were unable to get away to any sort of significant score, due mainly to the continued brilliance of Farooqi, who was the tournament’s leading wicket taker last season. His five-wicket haul included three in the last over he bowled, the penultimate one of the innings.
The Capitals’ total felt paltry, given the firepower of the defending champions’ batting line up. They gave themselves a shot at an upset, though, with a fine new ball burst from Olly Stone. The England fast bowler fired out Muhammed Waseem and Andre Fletcher in quick succession.
When Farhan, the debutant UAE fast bowler, then took a wicket and held a catch, MI were in deep trouble on 23-4.
The Capitals might have felt ahead of the game, but they will have known the job was never done while Pooran was still at the wicket.
The West Indies batter said after claiming the player of the match award in last year’s final that he was a child of T20 cricket. The way he performed in the first game of the new season just went to show that nobody does the format better.
Pooran blazed four sixes in his sparkling innings of 61 from 40 balls. He fell before victory was sealed, though, and his wicket was seminal.
Stone closed with 2-14 from his four overs, while Gulbadin Naib’s 3-13 was also crucial, but the hero at the last was Farhan who eked out a one-run win.
