DV vs SW 13th Match, ILT20 2024

Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Sharjah Warriors Captain): "It’s nice to get the win. It keeps us in the hunt. It’s never nice to be hit in the head but it woke me up. Not expected it here in Sharjah. Nice to get a couple of the balls away while batting after that. We had planned to be aggressive from the get-go. And then the bowlers chipped in with wickets all through. Our plan for Hales was not to give him freebies. This win gives us a lot of confidence. The bowlers put their hands up. We can do certain things better with the bat. But its great to get the win."

11:45pm IST and 9:45pm Local Time: In what turned out to be a comfortable victory for Sharjah Warriors, they have overcome the challenge of the Desert Vipers by 7 runs in an eventful ILT20 match at their home ground.

Chasing 175 for a victory, the Vipers stuttered in their way to the target. The Warriors were great with the ball, Chris Woakes (2/26), was especially good at mixing his lengths and swinging it. He got rid of Vipers’ skipper Colin Munro in the very first over. He was brilliantly complemented by Daniel Sams (2/29), who used his cutters and variations to perfection to turn the screws.

But the Vipers had their chances, especially when Alex Hales (61 off 40) was hitting it to all corners of the park. Azam Khan also played a good hand. But once both were out, the tailenders just could not up the scoring in time as the home team kept on bowling the right lines and lengths.

Earlier, afer they were put into bat first, the Warriors huffed and puffed their way to 174/7 from their 20 overs after looking good for much more at one point of time. Skipper Tom Kohler-Cadmore (68 off 34 with eight massive sixes), really took the bowlers to the cleaners in a scintillating T20 innings. Martin Guptill played the foil to him well. But once Luke Wood got rid of Kohler-Cadmore, it was the Wanidu Hasaranga (3/30) show, whose googly bamboozled the middle order.

Joe Denly stayed not out on 22 but never really got going as the promise of a 200+ total went up in smoke. Woakes gave him company till the end as they took their team to a competitive total. In the end, the runs they added proved crucial and Sharjah picked up a win in front of their home crowd. The Vipers have now lost two in a row.