Afridi and Akmal’s brilliant batting in US Masters T10

Lauderhill,
The New Jersey Triton’s batted with panache and put on a show for their fans, as they defeated the New York Warriors by 9 wickets. For the Triton’s, it was Jesse Ryder who was the top scorer with 38 from 12 balls. The game was reduced to a five-overs a side contest due to rain.

Batting first, the New York Warriors began with Kamran Akmal and Richard Levi, with both batters coming out of the blocks quickly. Levi did most of the heavy lifting early on, before Liam Plunkett struck.

Plunkett dismissed Levi for 16 and Tillakaratne Dilshan for 1, in the second over. Akmal was joined by Shahid Afridi at this stage, and the duo took the Warriors to 42/2 in 3 overs. Akmal was picking up the pace at his end while Afridi was looking to score quickly too.

The dangerous Afridi got going in the next over, as the Warriors scored 27 from it. After that, Afridi, who is well known for his big hits, smashed a hat-trick of fours in the final over, to take the Warriors to 84/2 from 5 overs.

In response, the New Jersey Triton’s opened the innings with Jesse Ryder and Yusuf Pathan, with the former taking the attack to the bowlers from the beginning. Ryder, who was facing most of the bowling, continued to attack, and by the end of the second over, had helped complete half the chase with the score reading 44/0.

Midway through the innings, Jerome Taylor dismissed Ryder for 38, caught behind by Akmal, which brought Chris Barnwell to the middle, who started off with two maximums. In the final two overs, the Tritons needed 23 runs to win.

Barnwell continued to score quickly from then on in, bring the equation down to 9 runs needed from the final over. Eventually, it was Yusuf Pathan, who hit the winning runs, finishing off the contest with a six, with a couple of deliveries to go in the game.

Brief Scores:
New York Warriors – 84/2 (Shahid Afridi – 37*, Kamran Akmal – 27*; Liam Plunkett – 2/8)
New Jersey Tritons – 90/1 (Jesse Ryder – 38, Chris Barnwell – 28*; Jerome Taylor – 1/18)