By Huzaifa Yousafzai from Lords
Fazalhaq Farooqi’s excellence rescues the Manchester Originals to a 12 run victory over the London Spirit who crash out of the tournament.
Farooqi claimed the big wickets of Michael Pepper and Ollie Pope in the powerplay before returning at the death to dismiss Andre Russell and close out the game.
Originals won their first game of the season at the sixth attempt thanks a fifty from Phil Salt and 3 for 24 from Farooqi but will not qualify for the knockouts despite the victory.
Originals were wasteful in the field, dropping Shimron Hetmyer twice and Keaton Jennings once before the pair combined for a fourth wicket partnership that yielded 96 runs and kept Spirit in the game.
Having chosen to field, Richard Gleeson struck first for Spirit when Matthew Hurst leading edged to Keaton Jennings at point before a pair of Salt boundaries gave the Originals a powerplay score of 26 for one.
Salt and Max Holden then crossed the fifty run mark for the second wicket partnership as the visitors were 54 for one halfway through their innings and looking to accelerate at the back end.
Salt continued his charge bringing up his half-century with a massive 101 Metre six against Olly Stone before his partner Holden was run out for a well made 38 from 28 balls.
Salt eventually holed out to Hetmyer at deep point before Jamie Overton picked out extra cover and Sikander Raza was caught on the offside boundary.
Late hits from Wayne Madsen and Paul Walter closed out the Originals innings on 135, possibly a few less than they could have got considering the start they had.
Farooqi put Originals into the ascendency when he dismissed Pepper with an excellent slower ball that was chipped up to cover before a hooping inswinger ripped through Pope’s defences and knocked over the stumps.
It got even worse for the home side when skipper Dan Lawrence attempted to drop and run but was caught short of his ground by an excellent throw to the non-strikers end from Phil Salt.
Hetmyer then brought up the fifty run partnership for the fourth wicket alongside Jennings as Spirit were left needing 75 runs to win midway through the chase.
The home side were looking good to overhaul the total, but the wicket of Hetmyer and the return spell of Farooqi to remove Russell closed out the game for the Originals.
