Shaheen Afridi bowled a brilliant spell for Welsh Fire (Source: Twitter)
With the beginning of the early stages of the Hundred Mens Competition Welsh Fire managed to defeat the Manchester Originals by 9 runs in the 3rd game of the league. The match was reduced to 40 balls due to rain. Welsh Fire took full advantage of the 40 balls after being put into bat by Manchester Originals and managed to set a commendable total of 94 for the loss of just 3 wickets in the 40 balls on the back of a wonderful half century from Luke Wells scoring 57 of just 23 deliveries.
Manchester Originals did not start well by losing 2 wickets in the first 2 balls of the innings to some toe crushing inswing yorkers from Pakistani Star bowler Shaheen Afridi. Even though the valiant efforts of Jos Buttler and Max Holden got them into the match by putting on a 3rd wicket partnership of 63 from 31 balls it wasn’t enough to get them over the line and they fell short of just 9 runs.
Flaming Bats: WEF vs. MNR - A Battle of Explosive Innings
There is no doubt that Welsh Fire looked the better side in the crucial stages of the match but we cannot ignore the fact that it was a much closer encounter than we anticipated.
The Half century of Luke Wells might have been the deciding factor of the match as he gave a much better start to his team which the Manchester Originals failed to get due to the double strike by Afridi. Even though the quick 37 from Holden and Buttler came at crucial time in the Innings the Welsh bowlers contained them at the death really well.
The highest partnership for the Welsh Fire was the 2nd wicket partnership between Wells and Phillips which consisted of 58 runs from 24 balls and the highest partnership for the Manchester Originals came between Holden and Buttler ( 63 from 31 balls) which kept them in the game.
The number of boundaries hit by both teams as well as the runs conceded in boundaries by both teams indicate how close this match was since both the teams conceded 9 fours and 4 sixes conceding 60 runs through boundaries.
One of the areas where Manchester lost the match is their bowling performances where most of their bowlers were expensive except for Hartley and inspite of Little going for some runs still managed to pick up some crucial wickets.
On the other hand the Welsh Fire pace trio consisting of Afridi, Willey and Rauf were exceptional on the day and the 10 ball spell of David Willey made a huge difference in the chase as he finished with figures of 2/17 in his 10 balls.
Even the extras conceded by Manchester Originals were very high as they conceded 12 extras compared to Welsh Fire conceding only 4. Overall even though both the teams were head to head it was the Bowling performances that pushed the result in the favour of Welsh Fire.
Conclusion
In conclusion this has been another close encounter between two sides who were neck and neck throughout this contest. The only thing separating the side was the bowling department which delivered in crucial moments of the match for Welsh Fire and disappointing for the Manchester Originals who conceded a lot of runs from start to finish along with some extras which cost them the game.
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