ABU DHABI: Morrisville Samp Army skipper Moeen Ali and Karim Janat played quick cameos to steer their side to an eight-wicket win over Deccan Gladiators in the 24th Abu Dhabi T10 League match at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.
This was Samp Army’s fifth consecutive victory in the ongoing season of the Abu Dhabi T10 League after losing their opening game.
Samp Army opted to bowl first and drew first blood with the wicket of Tom Kohler-Cadmore in the first over with ten runs on the board.
Andre Fletcher joined hands with Nicholas Pooran (11) and together they added 36 runs from 11 balls before Karim Janat removed the latter.
Fletcher then waged a lone war as Salman Irshad sent Andre Russell and Imad Wasim back in the same over to reduce Deccan Gladiators to 51-4.
Fletcher counter-attacked Samp Army while wickets kept tumbling on the other end and helped them raise an imposing total of 115 in their ten overs.
He scored an unbeaten 52 from 27 balls with the help of two boundaries and five sixes.
Salman Irshad led Samp Army’s bowling attack with brilliant bowling figures of 3-12, meanwhile, Qais Ahmed picked 2-18.
Follow us on our Official WhatsApp channel
Samp Army had a horrible start to their chase as Imad Wasim reduced them to 17-2 with back-to-back wickets of Andries Gous and Najibullah Zadran.
Faf du Plessis departed in the next over after scoring 13 off 11 with one six.
Gladiators skipper Moeen Ali and Ibrahim Zadran then knitted a blistering 49-run partnership from 20 balls to raise the team’s total to 70 before the latter perished.
Zadran scored 26 runs from 15 balls with the help of one boundary and two sixes.
Ali was joined by Karim Janat and together they helped their team reach the finish line with four balls to spare courtesy of their quick 46 runs partnership from 17 balls.
Moeen Ali scored an unbeaten 39 runs from 15 balls with the help of two boundaries and four sixes, while Janat played a blistering 27-run knock from nine balls, featuring four boundaries and one six.
Imad Wasim topped the bowling charts for Gladiators with bowling figures of 2-11.