T10 League: Chris Lynn smashes unbeaten 91 to become tournament’s top-scorer
Australia batsman Chris Lynn narrowly missed out on becoming the first centurion of the T10 League, after scoring an unbeaten 91 for the Maratha Arabians on Monday night.
Opening the innings against Team Abu Dhabi, Lynn smoked a blistering 30-ball 91 that included 9 fours and 7 sixes. The 29-year old went past Alex Hales’ 87* off 32 balls for the highest individual score of the tournament, which incidentally came for the Arabians in 2018.
Striking at 303.33, captain Lynn had raced away to a fiery 82 in just 26 balls by the seventh over bowled by pacer Harry Gurney. However, a late cameo from Adam Lyth (18 off 30 balls) invariably kept the opener off strike and Lynn ended up facing just four of the last 18 balls. By the time Lynn got back to strike, he could only face the last delivery of the innings which he ended up dispatching for a four. Courtesy Lynn and Lyth, the Arabians finished with 138/2 in the stipulated 10 overs. They eventually won the match by 24 runs.
The swashbuckling batsman wasn’t too disappointed on having missed out the first century of the league.
“Obviously when you get a bit closer, you want to get [to a hundred],” Lynn said. “But the guy at the other end [Lyth] was hitting boundaries as well. So to get 138 on that wicket was a really good job.
“It would have been nice to get the first hundred of the T10 but that’s the way it goes and there are plenty more games in this tournament to try and get another opportunity to do that. We’ll just see what happens,” Lynn said.
Releasing Lynn ‘bad call’ by KKR: Yuvraj Singh
Lynn’s terrific knock on Monday night was a timely reminder of the batsman’s hard-hitting abilities, some of which have also been on display in the Indian Premier League over the years. His innings at Abu Dhabi particularly impressed his Arabians teammate Yuvraj Singh, who thought releasing a player of Lynn’s calibre was a grave mistake by his IPL franchise, the Kolkata Knight Riders.
“He [Lynn] is someone I have seen in the IPL. He has given some great starts to KKR [Kolkata Knight Riders]. I really don’t understand how they didn’t retain him. I think that’s a bad call, must send SRK (Shah Rukh Khan, the franchise owner) a message on that,” Yuvraj joked.
It is only a matter of time before someone breaches the century-mark in the tournament, a sentiment well and truly echoed by Abu Dhabi captain Moeen Ali, who witnessed ‘Lynnsanity’ from the opposite side. Lynn’s relentless hitting was also proof of the quality of pitches on display in the T10 League.
“We know there are players in the competition who can [hit a century],” Moeen, the man trying to counter Lynn’s onslaught, said. “I’m sure it’s going to happen very soon. There’s a great chance [of it happening] if somebody gets in.”
