With rain ruling out the first game of the day between Atlanta Riders and the Texas Chargers, the proceedings started with the New Jersey Triton’s pulling off a remarkable chase against the California Knights to set the tone for the second battle of the day.
The Knights got off on the wrong footing as they lost Jacques Kallis early but thanks to a special knock from their skipper Aaron Finch who clobbered a 31-ball-75 and Milind Kumar’s swashbuckling 14-ball-27, California posted a formidable 116.
Coming out to chase, the Triton’s hammered away to heart’s content as Naman Ojha led the charge with a 11-ball-25. However, it was another Yusuf Pathan blitzkrieg featuring 35 runs from just 11 balls that saw the Triton’s securing a comfortable victory with two balls and six wickets to spare. Christopher Barnwell and Peter Trego provided a late flourish to cap off another shining day for the New Jersey outfit.
After incessant brush-offs with rain, the Atlanta Riders finally managed to get some game time as they took on the New York Warriors in the last game of day four. Batting first, they limped their way to 97 on the board, courtesy of Robin Uthappa who smashed 24 from 9 balls, Lendl Simmons hammering 21 off 11 balls, while Dwayne Smith’s uncharacteristically slow knock of 34 from 26 was the last notable mention of the innings.
Sohail Khan crippled the Riders with an extraordinary spell of 3/21 from his two overs as he clinched the big wickets of Uthappa, Dwayne Smith and Junaid Siddique. With 98 to chase for the Warriors, things turned into a cakewalk as Kamran Akmal and Tillakaratne Dilshan got off to absolute blinders.
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Akmal clubbed 34 off 11 balls while Dilshan hammered away to 28 off 14 to get the Warriors in the hunt as the tempo felt absolutely perfect. Despite wickets falling on three consecutive deliveries that may have introduced a few jitters in the Warriors’ camp, the New York outfit were right back in the driver’s seat as Shahid Afridi and Jonathan Carter saw them off until the finish line.
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Afridi scored an unbeaten 22 while the latter stayed rooted at the other end for 17 that saw the Warriors securing a victory by seven wickets.
