Team Abu Dhabi's relentless start to the Abu Dhabi T10 season has well and truly come to a halt after they suffered a second straight defeat on Saturday.
After Friday's 10-run loss to Bangla Tiger ended their five-match winning run, Abu Dhabi suffered an emphatic 10-wicket defeat to defending champions Northern Warriors at the Zayed Cricket stadium the following day.
England international Moeen Ali and West Indian batsman Kennar Lewis, who produced a century stand just a few days ago, lit up the stage once again to comfortably chase down Abu Dhabi's daunting total and secure a second win of the season for the Warriors.
Moeen and Lewis took an over to find their groove before smashing 35 runs from the next two overs off the bowling of Ahmed Daniyal and Fidel Edwards. They kept the momentum going in the following two overs, reaching 74 at the halfway mark of the chase.
Team Abu Dhabi captain Liam Livingstone used all his main bowlers in search of a breakthrough but to no avail as Moeen and Lewis reached their half-centuries, with Moeen reaching the milestone in just 16 deliveries - the fastest of the season so far.
Starting from the fourth ball of the seventh over, the pair hit eight sixes and one four in 11 deliveries to wrap up the victory.
The game had begun with an exciting first over for Team Abu Dhabi as Paul Stirling, who had missed the last two matches, went on the offensive by smashing Oshane Thomas for two sixes.
The Irishman found his stumps shattered on the next ball but got a reprieve when the replays revealed that the bowler had overstepped. Stirling then hit the next ball for six followed by a four to take 26 runs from the first over.
The Warriors hit back by dismissing the Team Abu Dhabi openers in the next two overs to claw their way back into the contest. But the reintroduction of Thomas into the attack in the fifth over allowed the right hand-left hand combination of Livingstone and Colin Ingram to break free as they plundered 24 runs from the over and gave the Abu Dhabi innings the momentum it needed.
Despite the loss of Livingstone for 27 in the seventh over, Ingram continued the assault and took the team past the 100-run mark and the South African soon reached his half-century off 17 deliveries.
By the time he got out in the final over of the innings for 62, he had ensured his team would end up setting a huge target for the Warriors, and some brisk hitting by Jamie Overton and Marchant De Lange towards the end of the innings took Team Abu Dhabi to 145.
The Warriors’ win was marred by a fine for a slow over rate. Match referee Chris Broad imposed the sanction after Rovman Powell’s side was ruled to be one over short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration.
In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ADT10 Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel (which relates to minimum over-rate offences), for the first offence by the team in a season the captain is fined 20 per cent and every other member of the playing XI are fined 10 per cent of their match fees.
In the second fixture of the night, Chennai Braves suffered another humiliating defeat, their seventh in as many games, at the hands of Bengal Tigers.
Bundled out for 57 in the previous night, the Braves were restricted to 89 for four. The Tigers, led by a swashbuckling 16-ball 46 not out by Hazratullah Zazai, were home by nine wickets and with 25 balls to spare.
