A last-ditch effort at using his supreme power to hit the Jamaica Tallawahs to a win ultimately failed for Andre Russell, who was left unbeaten on 52 while his side crashed to their second defeat of this Hero Caribbean Premier League at the hands of the Guyana Amazon Warriors.
In large part, that failure, scoring 60 off the last four overs, was down to the bowling of Naveen-ul-Haq, who bowled the penultimate over to Russell.
At the start of the 19th over, the Tallawahs were 87-7, needing a further 32 runs from the 12 deliveries to come.
The first delivery of Naveen’s over was muscled over deep midwicket for Russell’s fourth six of the innings. The second delivery from Naveen was full outside off stump and a thick outside edge saw it rush to the third man boundary. Russell had taken 10 runs off the first two deliveries, having already taken 17 from Imran Tahir the over before that and 11 from Keemo Paul’s 17th over.
But Naveen, apparently, is made of sterner stuff and produced four dot balls to leave the Tallawahs with 22 to get from six and Russell at the non-striker’s end.
“It was difficult to bat on that pitch. The first ball I saw was sticking and turning a lot, so I knew that if we put up 120 or thereabouts, it’s gonna be a tough chase for them,” said Naveen of the 118-run total the Warriors had just defended, the lowest in CPL history.
Speaking with CPL’s Alex Jordan, Naveen went on to explain that he was fearful of bowling that 19th over to a man known to be among the most destructive batsmen in the world.
Naveen would end with figures of 1-22 from his four overs.
“He is quite an explosive player and everybody knows this. I am cherishing this moment. It was quite lucky that I got that over. I was happy to come at the main stage and do well for my team. I got the chance and I did well,” he said.