ADKR miss out on victory despite putting up a fighting performance | SW vs ADKR Match Review

ADKR 161/8 [Kyle Mayers 56(36), Roston Chase 33(21); Adam Zampa 3/27 in 4 Overs] lost to SW 162/6 in 19 Overs [Johnson Charles 65(36), Tom Kohler-Cadmore 39(21); Sunil Narine 2/20 in 4 Overs] by 4 wickets

The Abu Dhabi Knight Riders took on the Sharjah Warriorz in an important game at the iconic Sharjah Cricket Stadium with an aim to pick up their 4th win of the season. This game marked to be extremely crucial for ADKR as the race to playoffs intensified with all the teams looking to pick up important points. With their sights set on adding two points in their bag, ADKR looked to set the stage ablaze by putting on an all-round performance. 

ADKR were put into bat first and looked to make a positive & aggressive start. They lost a couple of early wickets right at the start of the inning but Kyle Mayers took the charge to the SW bowlers. Partnership up along with Roston Chase, the duo took the aggressive route and punished the bad balls. Mayers put on an absolute show of exquisite ball striking and powerful hitting as he reached his fifty in quick time. The innings looked to progress extremely well for ADKR but the wickets of Mayers & Chase disturbed the momentum. After the partnership was broken, ADKR’s innings stumbled with 3-4 quick wickets. However, Jason Holder’s fighting knock of 26 led ADKR to a competitive total of 161. The responsibility was now on the bowlers to defend this score & help ADKR pick up the crucial victory. 

The ADKR bowlers aimed to put pressure on the SW bowlers right from the outset of the 2nd innings by bowling tight lengths and not giving any loose deliveries. ADKR looked to attack the Warriorz in the powerplay where they aimed to extract maximum swing early doors. However, Johnson Charles and Tom Kohler-Cadmore took off to a fiery start. While Kohler-Cadmore was dismissed in the powerplay, Charles continued to score freely and put pressure on ADKR. At one point the game looked completely in control of the Warriorz, but ADKR had plenty of fight left in them. Sunil Narine, Jason Holder & debutant Terrance Hinds’ disciplined bowling helped ADKR come back into the game. The chase intensified with the Warriorz stumbling to 6 wickets down needing quite a few runs. However, Asthon Agar steered SW to a win with a handy cameo. ADKR fought right till the end and they will take a lot of pride in this effort. The ADKR bowlers took the game as deep as they could yet couldn’t get over the line. The Knight Riders will be looking to pick up the positives from this game and aim to win their next match in order to move closer towards the playoffs qualification.