So, that's that for the Eliminator. This is me Probuddha Bhattacharjee signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Ayan Chatterjee and scorer/analyst Chandan Kr. Singh. Stay tuned for the last match of the day from the tournament as we get our second finalists.
Player of the Match: Joshua Little
Power Hitter of the Match: Odean Smith
Magic Moment of the Match: Sultan Ahmed
The presentation ceremony will be up soon, stay tuned..
Sultan Ahmed:"Thanks to God that we won. It was up and down and hopefully, it's a smoother ride from here on. The batting is good, the bowling is good also. You need 120 in this pitch, hope the batters learn from the mistake. The target was small to defend. The bowlers have done well and credit to them as we took early wickets in the powerplay."
9:38 PM IST| So, the eliminator of the Abu Dhabi T10 League has been done and dusted. Now, Morrisville Samp Army and Deccan Gladiators will be playing in Qualifier 2 to be in the final of the tournament. Earlier, Team Abu Dhabi won the toss and opted to field first. The bowlers of the team proved their captain right as they reduced the Gladiators to 4 for 28 in the fourth over. David Wiese and Odean Smith stitched a partnership of 50 runs and ensured that the Gladiators can reach a respectable total. Smith was murdering the bowlers and scored 32 runs off 15 balls, which was the highest of the team. It was looking like Smith will take the total to a formidable one when Hatzoglou took a brilliant catch to send the man back. This once again brought the scoring rate down and after all the struggles Deccan Gladiators managed to reach a total of 94 runs in their 10 overs. In the chase, the Gladiators got a good start as they dismissed the explosive opening duo of Team Abu Dhabi (Alex Hales and Chirs Lynn) by the 8th ball of the innings for just 14 runs. Two more wickets fell and they were 4 for 32 in the 4th over. But the batters of Team Abu Dhabi did not deter from going after the bowlers and that kept them in the hunt. But in the end, the loss of too many wickets at the start and also a cluster of wickets towards the end cost them as they fell short of the target by 6 runs. James Vince was the highest scorer for Team Abu Dhabi with 21 runs off 15 balls and the heroics of Adil Rashid (18 off 9) was also not enough for them. The pick of the bowlers for the Gladiators was Tabraiz Shamsi, who bowled 2 overs and conceded just 12 runs in them picking up 2 wickets. Deccan Gladiators will now try and qualify for the finals by defeating the debutants Morrisville Samp Army in Qualifier 2 and keep their hopes to defend the title alive.
OVER 10
Team Abu Dhabi
89/8
Adil Rashid
18(9)
Naveen ul Haq
2(3)
Zahoor Khan
0-17(2.0)
Done!!!!!!! a brilliant ball by Zahoor to keep his team alive.