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Rovman Powell and opener Lendl Simmons came up with performances befitting those of warriors to help the Northern Warriors take the match away from Team Abu Dhabi’s grasp and set up a final date with the Delhi Bulls in the Alubond Abu Dhabi T10 League.
Powell smoked 49 from 24 deliveries with five boundaries and two sixes and Simmons smacked an unbeaten 27-ball 46 with three sixes and an equal number of boundaries as the 2018 champions nicked a seven-wicket win with two balls to spare, in Eliminator 2, at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Friday night.
The Warriors had got a second opportunity after going down to the Bulls in the Qualifier, earlier, while Team Abu Dhabi had beaten the Qalandars in Eliminator 1.
Team Abu Dhabi meet the Qalandars in the play-off for the third place, while the Northern Warriors take on the Delhi Bulls in the final on Saturday night.
Earlier, opener Paul Stirling had put the skates on as Team Abu Dhabi motored along to 55 in three overs. But with wickets falling in clumps, at regular intervals, they eventually finished up at 114 for seven. West Indian left-arm spinner Fabian Allen returned with 4-13.
Team Abu Dhabi were off to a flier with Stirling, the burly Irish opener, dealing in sixes and boundaries against pacers Wayne Parnell, Junaid Siddique and Rayad Emrit, to race along to 48 from just 12 deliveries.
But Emrit put the brakes on with the Stirling not quite getting it on the middle of the bat and lobbing it to Waseem Muhammad at mid-off.
Chris Gayle followed soon after, making a six-ball seven with a lone boundary, holing out to Fabian Allen at long-on off UAE pacer Siddique.
Allen then polished off the middle-order as Team Abu Dhabi stuttered to that total.
The Northern Warriors were behind the eight-ball during the chase after UAE opener Waseem Muhammad whipped UAE off-spinner Rohan Mustafa down Naveen-ul-Haq’s throat at deep midwicket.
The stage was set for Warriors captain Nicholas Pooran and he had a chance to go past Qalandars skipper Sohail Akhtar as the leading run scorer in the tournament, but the southpaw fell for a three-ball duck. It was his second duck of the tournament, and it came at the most crucial time. Incidentally, the first one too had come against Team Abu Dhabi during the Super League phase.
Simmons and Rovman Powell kept them in the hunt.
Brief scores:
Team Abu Dhabi: 114-7 in 10 overs (Paul Stirling 48, Joe Clarke 16, Jamie Overton 15, Ben Duckett 11, Fabian Allen 4-13) lost to Northern Warriors: 115-3 in 9.4 overs (Rovman Powell 49, Lendl Simmons 46 not out, Waseem Muhammad 10) by 7 wickets.
james@khaleejtimes.com
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