Gulf International 169/5 in 20 overs (MS Khan 55, Ismaeel 39, Janarthanan 2/30) beat Omega Insurance Brokers 168/8 in 20 overs (Shane Alam 59, Abhishek Tiwari 27, Raja 3/27) by 5 wickets.
Dot ball or a run, both the teams were left with these two scenarios when Saqlain was running to bowl the last ball of the match. And it was the run which won the RPL title for Gulf International. Yes, Hayat has done it for his team. They were given a decent target of 169 in 20 overs and the openers gave them the perfect start as they would've expected. Before Ismaeel went into pavillion, they successfully added 71 runs for the first wicket and responsibility was now on the later batsmen to follow the chase in a formidable manner. BS Gehri got out on the score of 8 but MS Khan was still there causing head-aches for the Omega Insurance's side. Dananjaya supported MS Khan, he scored 26 off 23 deliveries, but Gulf International lost their way in between when their current run-rate and required run-rate had a mis-match. It was the fifteenth over when things changed drastically for the chasing side when they lost their set batsman MS Khan and Waqas Ali on two consecutive deliveries off Rizwan. Now the onus was on Asif Hayat to take his team over the line, at last Gulf needed 12 runs off the last six balls which were to be bowled by Syed Saqlain. He started with a wide, now 11 needed off 6. Then Hayat takes double followed by a four, it all came down to the last ball when the scores were level on 168. Now one run off one ball, and Hayat takes a single to make his team the champions of RPL T20.
Omega Insurance Brokers won the toss and elected to bat first, started on a decent rate, they suffered three losses by the fifth over. Aamir Raja was on fire at that moment, in fact he was the one who gave initial breakthroughs to Gulf. Then Ryan Rasheed and Shane Alam added 45 runs for the fourth wicket, Rasheed was out after adding 16 runs to the total. Shane Alam was batting good and he was well assisted by Abhishek Tiwari who played cameo of 27, Alam made 59 runs, towards the end, Rizwan also hit one six and a four in his 4-ball 12. In the bowling, Raja took 3/27, Hayat was economical, gave 26 runs in his four overs.
RPL 2020 was a tournament where we saw some high scoring as well as low scoring contests, but the spirit and dedication shown by players and their respective teams was immense throughout the series. Leather ball tournaments are always an asset when it comes to promoting the game and RPL has just added value to it.
