Abu Dhabi, Nov 25 (Cricket News) Riding on a massive opening partnership between Moeen Ali and Kennar Lewis, The Northern Warriors registered a 19-run win over The Chennai Braves in the Abu Dhabi T10 here.

Ali and Lewis stitched a 106-run opening partnership while Oshane Thomas picked up a hat-trick to snuff out any hopes of a comeback from The Chennai Braves unit.

With Northern Warriors picking up two points from the contest, The Chennai Braves now remain the only side in the tournament without a win.

Chasing a massive total of 153, the Dasun Sanaka led team needed a start as good as their opponents. Opener Mohammad Shahzad swung his bat at everything, eventually getting out on the sixth ball he faced.

Angelo Perera joined hands with Bhanuka Rajapaksa and the duo raised hopes of a fightback with some big hits as they took the score to 49.

Abhimanyu Mithun, however, soon disturbed the stumps of Perera before Rajapaksa holed out in the next over to give Imran Tahir his solitary wicket of the evening.

The innings lost momentum after the departure of the Sri Lankan batters and The Chennai Braves kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Thomas removed Mark Deyal, Tion Webster, and Campher in his second over to finish with a hat-trick against his name. The chase folded up in 9.5 overs as The Chennai Braves finished with 133.

Northern Warriors, who have struggled with their opening combination throughout the competition, finally sent Ali to open the batting with Lewis earlier in the evening.

Lewis started the attack by smashing Ravi Bopara for a couple of sixes and a four before Ali took the attack a notch higher in the next over as he punished Kevin Koththigoda with a hat-trick of sixes.

The Warriors’ innings faced a setback when Mark Deyal removed both the openers for an identical score of 49 in the seventh over.

Normalcy resumed soon as the new pair of batters — Rowman Powell and Samit Patel — continued finding the boundary rope with similar frequency at the back end of the innings, stitching a partnership of 45 from just 18 deliveries.

Curtis Campher managed to take two wickets off the final two deliveries of the innings but Northern Warriors had piled up 152 by then. 

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News Source : PTI