You can talk about nerves when making your debut in a particular tournament and then you can talk about people like Saqib Mahmood who seemed to be enjoying himself from the first ball he bowled on his Big Bash League (BBL) debut. Due to good results in white-ball cricket in 2020-2021, he was signed by Sydney Thunder for BBL 11 and made his debut on 19th December, 2021.
He joined the squad for the team’s fourth game of the BBL 2021/22 season and the side wasn’t doing all that well until he joined them, with 1 win in 3 games until then. However, he came in and brought good lucky and a victory on his BBL debut, along with finishing with record figures for a debutant in Australia’s Big Bash League.
Jimmy Peirson won the toss for Brisbane Heat and put the Thunder in to bat and there too, it was the Englishmen who did well, with Alex Hales giving them a good start and then, Sam Billings smashing 64(27) to propel Thunder to a very good score. He had a couple of forties in BBL 11 prior to this and this innings which included 5 sixes and 5 fours ensured they got up to 196/7 in their 20 overs.
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Three of the Heat bowlers picked up 2 wickets each and the best among them was Mitchell Swepson who finished with 2/27, also joining the squad late this season, as he was with the national squad for a while. And this good performance by the Thunder batsmen allowed the pressure off the bowlers, especially someone like Mahmood who didn’t have a lot of wickets in games prior to this one at The Gabba!
His first over itself was a massive one, as he picked a wicket on his third ball and then another one, reducing Heat to 8/2 after 2 overs. When he returned for his second over, he was equally destructive with another double-strike and a run out as well, with Thunder getting three wickets in that over, taking the hosts to 15/5 in the third over itself. How do you recover from that?!
This is turning out to be some debut!
4-9 and still two overs to come for Saqib Mahmood! #BBL11 pic.twitter.com/xUOINCGeP6
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 19, 2021
He was taken to the cleaners in his third over by Tom Cooper as the latter was sent out early to try and chase the Bash Boost Point, which goes to the team that has the higher score at the 10-over mark.
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