61 runs in 2 overs – historic chase for Austria against Romania

The ECI T10 match between Austria and Romania threw up a passage of cricket that is likely to repeated soon, and you can find out more about this amazing piece of cricket. 

What went down?

In the 7th match of the ECI T10 Romania, taking place at the Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground in Bucharest, Austria found themselves 107/3 after eight overs had been bowled. Romania had posted a total of 167 from their 10 overs, meaning that Austria needed 61 off the final 12 balls to register a win. In other words, they had to hit 30.5 runs per over. 

This was no problem for the Austria batsmen as they went about smashing fours and sixes to give their nation a very important seven-wicket win. 

Nobody would have bet on this

The Sports betting platform SportwettenÖsterreich.at claims that Austrians love to bet on various sports, but we do not think that even the most optimistic of Austrian cricket fans would have put any of their hard-earned money on their team to smash 61 in 12 balls. Bookmakers in Austria would have been rubbing their hands together in glee at the thought of their punters putting money on an Austria win. That is, until the Terminator showed up for the Austrians.

Who turned into the Terminator?

Aqib Iqbal put in a captain’s knock as he smashed 72 off 19 balls, which gave him a staggering strike rate of 378.95. The Austrian bowlers just did not know how to bowl at him, and he helped himself to no fewer than 10 sixes. There are no prizes for guessing who the Man of the Match was in this game. 

Despite Iqbal’s staggering performance, Austria still had no right to win the game from the position that they found themselves in. Special mentions must also go to Imran Asif and Karanir Singh as they also performed well with the bat: Asif scored 22 off 12, while Singh managed 30 off 13. 

Who got exterminated?

Manmeet Koli was the bowler who the Austrian batsmen took a liking to, and their assault on his bowling caused him lose his line and length. In the penultimate over of the match, he conceded 41 runs, which included no fewer than nine extra. The pressure clearly got to him greatly. 

Chamik Fernando was the man charged with bowling the final over of the game, and he would have expected to have a lot more runs to ease the pressure on his shoulders. The first four balls that he bowled were smashed for sixes, and Austria won the match with balls to spare. The final partnership between Asif and Iqbal saw a total of 97 runs scored from just 27 balls. This means that they scored 3.60 runs per ball faced during that partnership. Very impressive.

Romania’s immense batting

The fact that Austria managed to smash 61 runs off the final two overs of the match overshadows the brilliant batting performance that the Romanian batsmen put in. They hit 16.8 runs an over to finish with 168 runs, and their star of the innings was Ariyan Mohammed, who hit an unbeaten century. A special mention must also be given to Muhammad Moiz, who hit a quick-fire 42. 

With such a total on the board, the Romanian bowlers would have been feeling pretty confident about being able to defend it and get their team an important two points.  With 61 needed from two overs, the heart rate of their players and fans would have been low. However, they come up against an Austrian batting line-up that put metal to the pedal and went for broke. They had nothing to lose, and luck was on their side. 

A rare phenomenon

Even if you have been watching cricket for many years now, we are pretty sure that you will never have seen anything quite like that before. This isn’t even something you would see that often down the local park on a Sunday morning. Those in attendance, even the losing Romania fans, will be happy to have witnessed a little bit of cricket history. We recommend that you check out the match highlights if you get the opportunity to do so.