INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The muscular West Indies opener, Johnson Charles, virtually carried his team on his shoulders with a 71 runs partnership in 51 balls for the
fourth wicket with Lewis Gregory (16), and a 29-run stand with UAE&s Basil Hameed for the fifth wicket.Displaying his power-hitting skills,
Charles hit six sixers and eight boundaries.Though Charles got out when Warriors needed 27 runs off 23 balls, Hameed, through an unbeaten
24, and Daniel Sams (16 not out), propelled their team to victory with seven balls to spare.Capitals& medium pacer Dushmantha Chameera
picked four out of the five wickets that fell for 28 runs, but his efforts went in vain.Capitals were put into bat, but they posted a
fighting total of 170 for 7 in 20 overs.Sam Billings top scored with 52 runs off 32 balls with four sixes and one boundary while Sikandar
Raza hit 48 runs off 23 balls with three boundaries and three sixes.Together they put on 81 runs for the fourth wicket off 44 balls after
their team got off to a slow start scoring just 38 runs in the powerplay
Skipper and opener David Warner played a sedate knock of 20 off 27 balls while Rahmaullah Gurbaz, fresh from this match winning knock of 81
against MI Emirates, got out for only 15 runs.Jake Fraser-McGurk could muster only 14 runs
Daniel Sams picked three wickets for 28, which included the wickets of Gurbaz, Warner and Raza
He was well backed by Chris Woakes (2 for 21) and Mahesh Theekshana (2 for 32)
Theekshana, who had also bagged four wickets in his first match against Gulf Giants, received the white belt for being the leading
wicket-taker of the tournament so far.In pursuit of their target of 171 runs, Warriors brought in opener Martin Guptill as the super- sub in
place of Dilshan Madushanka, but he got run out for 2.Skipper and opener Tom Kohler-Cadmore then edged Dushmantha Chameera to wicketkeeper
Gurbaz for 3.Charles began with a six off Chameera and then went on to hit Jason Holder for a six and a boundary to wipe away the effect of
the early dismissals.Niroshan Dickwella, who put on 25 runs in 12 balls with Charles, got out to Chameera for 7
By the end of the powerplay, Charles ensured that Warriors was strongly placed at 60 for 3 by scoring 42 off those runs
He raced to his half century in 26 balls.Lewis Gregory provided good support to Charles who kept scoring freely
In the last ten overs, Warriors needed 79 runs
Chameera picked his third wicket clean bowling Gregory in the 13th over for 16
He also went on to take the wicket of Charles forcing him to top edge to wicketkeeper Gurbaz when he was seven runs short of his century
Hameed and Sams then carried their team to the target.Commenting on his knock, the hero of the day and player of the match as well as the
current green belt holder for high run-getter, Charles said: &This pitch was very good, bit more bounce, which meant a lot more leeway
Just had to make the most of the powerplay, which we did
I just want to keep it going
As we age, we get better, like fine wine, so I want to get better
Very important to get good starts in the powerplay, you get on top of the opposition.&Commenting on his team&s defeat, Warner remarked:
&Toss is a key component to this ground
We left a few runs out there, myself included
They bowled really well to me in the powerplay
It&s always tough when you bat first here
We bowled way too many bad balls to Johnson.&Watch Live!Don&t forget, Ariana Television is broadcasting all matches live daily
Tuesday&s match between Abu Dhabi Knight Riders and MI Emirates will start at 7pm
However, fans can tune in from 6:30 pm for the pre-match show.The post Johnson Charles sets stadium ablaze by cracking 93 to ensure win for
Sharjah Warriors first appeared on Ariana News.
