The Atlanta Riders, 103 for 6 (Simmons 41, Uthappa 32, Sohail 4-15), were defeated by the New York Warriors, 109 for 4 (Carter 41*, Harmeet 2-8), by six wickets.
It came down to the New York Warriors needing 22 off the last over of the chase after Sohail Khan got four wickets in the span of four deliveries to restrict the Atlanta Riders to 103 for 6. Then, Kamrul Islam was hit for four sixes by Jonathan Carter and Misbah-ul-Haq to secure a victory with the last ball.
Lendl Simmons and Robin Uthappa contributed 81 runs in 7.5 overs after the Riders were sent in. With the help of two fours and four sixes, Simmons was the more aggressive, scoring 41 off of 23, while Uthappa played second fiddle with 32 off of 25.
Atlanta scored 83 for 2 in 8.1 overs after both of their openers left within three balls of one another. With one over remaining, Hamilton Masakadza struck his first ball for a six to bring the score to 98 for 2. Sohail startled them at that point. He dismissed Masakadza and Hammad Azam with the first two deliveries of the tenth over before trapping Grant Elliott LBW to complete his hat trick. Fidel Edwards had already scored one earlier in the day, making that the second hat-trick of the day, but Sohail went on to surpass it. He defeated Harmeet Singh with his subsequent ball to complete a four-for-four.
New York’s chase got off to a rough start, and by the second over, they were down to 15 for 2. When Harmeet took out Tillakaratne Dilshan for his second wicket, it quickly changed to 39 for 3.
Shahid Afridi smashed Nasir Hossain for a four and a six, with 62 needed off five overs. Carter hit two consecutive fours against Elias Sunny in the following over.
In order to give Atlanta the lead, Rayad Emrit removed Afridi in the eighth over, and Mohammad Irfan gave up just eight runs in the ninth. In the final over, Kamrul had 21 to defend, but he erred. Carter smacked his opening pitch for a six, while Misbah also reached the boundary after a single and a wide.
Carter smashed back-to-back sixes to seal the deal when seven needed to be scored off of two balls.
By eight wickets, the Texas Chargers beat New Jersey Triton’s 57 for 9 (Trego 13, Edwards 3-5, and Adil 3-12) total of 60 for 2 (Hafeez 27).
Sohail Tanvir’s low full ball was struck by Danza Hyatt into deep midwicket.
Jersey, New As soon as Edwards removed openers Yusuf Pathan and Naman Ojha with back-to-back short deliveries in the first over, Triton was out of sorts. Before Ehsan Adil put him out of his pain, Jesse Ryder too struggled to find his groove.
Adil struck once more, dismissing Chris Barnwell by smashing the stumps with a full-length delivery, making matters worse for the Tritons. In the fifth over, Danza Hyatt smacked a low full ball from Sohail Tanvir toward deep midwicket, giving the Tritons their first four runs of the game. Gautam Gambhir, the captain, came in at No. 8 but was dismissed after the second ball after being misled by Imran Khan’s slower delivery.
In the ninth over, Bipul Sharma’s full-length ball touched the top of Edwards’ off stump due to a swing and miss.
Mohammad Hafeez smacked Peter Trego for a six and a four off successive deliveries in the opening over to get the Chargers off to a quick start as they chased down a meager 58. The next over, against Liam Plunkett, he immediately followed it up with two consecutive sixes. Plunkett countered by slowing down and casting Hafeez on the very next delivery.
Before RP Singh dismissed the Chargers skipper, Ben Dunk maintained his assault, striking the former India fast bowler for 14 runs in the first four deliveries of the third over. In the next over, Thisara Perera and Mukhtar Ahmed brought the team home after needing ten runs to win in 43 deliveries.
Morrisville Unity defeated the California Knights 100 for 4 (Finch 63*, Pienaar 3-13) by seven wickets (Jayasuriya 27, Pienaar 23*, Powell 1-3).
Aaron Finch, the captain of the California Knights, scored an unbeaten 63 off 30 balls, but it was in vain as Mooresville Unity won by seven wickets thanks to an all-around performance from Obus Pienaar (3 for 13 and 23 not out off 12). With five points from four games, the victory moved Unity into second place in the standings.
Knights were sent in, but they got off to a sluggish start as the starting pair of Finch and Jacques Kallis had trouble consistently finding boundaries.
After finally smashing Najaf Shah for a straight down the wicket boundary, Finch changed the momentum with a brilliant six over third man in the third over. The next over saw him lose his opening partner, though, as he was victimized by Pienaar’s quicker deliveries.
Finch was the only Knights batter to reach double figures despite having trouble with timing but maintaining his poise. In the meantime, Pienaar persisted in working his magic, removing Suresh Raina and Milind Kumar in quick succession in his second over.
Finch raised his fifty off 25 balls as he continued to hold down the fort from the opposite end. However, with no other batsman hitting a boundary in the final five overs, the Knights’ total was below par.
Chris Gayle and Parthiv Patel contributed 30 runs in 2.5 overs during the chase before Gayle was caught off a faster delivery from Ashley Nurse. In the subsequent over, Parthiv followed suit and was struck out by Ricardo Powell.
But Shehan Jayasuriya and Pienaar kept the runs coming by reliably sending the ball to the boundary and over it. After Pawan Suyal’s straighter delivery resulted in Jayasuriya’s dismissal, Corey Anderson appeared eager to lead his team home and raise their net run rate. The former New Zealand all-rounder helped his team win by hitting Nurse for 20 runs in the final four pitches of the ninth over.
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