Shahid Afridi big hits help NYWarriors win Against Atlanta Riders

Lauderhill, Florida,
The New York Warriors put on a brilliant show, with both the bat and ball, and went on to register a 7-wicket win against the Atlanta Riders. Kamran Akmal top scored for the Warriors with 34 while Sohail Khan also bagged a three-wicket haul.
Batting first, the Atlanta Riders were off to a flyer with opener Robin Uthappa scoring a quickfire 24 off 9 deliveries, taking the score to 29/1 at the end of two overs. By that time, his opening partner Lendl Simmons had settled in, and was eyeing the boundaries.

Simmons was joined by Dwayne Smith, and the duo played out a 4-run over to start with. The Riders were at 33/1 after 3. Simmons added a few lusty blows and was dismissed for 21, with the score on 57/2, around the half-way mark. Smith was joined by Junaid Siddique, and the duo kept things steady, taking the score to 76/2 after 7 overs.
Siddique was dismissed for 13 off 12 in the final over, as the Riders finished with 97/4. Smith lost his wicket off the last ball of the innings, scoring 34 off 26 balls.
In response, the New York Warriors opened with Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kamran Akmal, and both found the fence with regularity early on. The Warriors had quickly moved along to 29/0 in 2 overs.

The duo matched each other shot for shot, and took the Warriors to 63/0 in 4 overs. The openers hadn’t hit a six in the first three overs, and then Akmal smashed three in the fourth over. The fifth over began with Dilshan losing his wicket for 28 off 14 deliveries. Richard Levi was cleaned up off the next ball for a duck, and Akmal was run-out for 34 off 11 deliveries off the third ball of the over, which ended with the score at 66/3.

Shahid Afridi and Jonathan Carter were the batters in the middle for the Warriors after that, and they brought it down to 14 runs required in the final 3 overs. In the 8th over, both Carter (17*) and Afridi went big, and closed out the chase with 7 wickets in hand, and 11 balls to spare. Afridi put the seal on the win with a six and finished unbeaten on 22.

Brief Scores
New York Warriors – 103/3 (Kamran Akmal – 34, T Dilshan – 28; Elias Sunny – 2/11)
Atlanta Riders – 97/4 (Dwayne Smith – 34, Robin Uthappa – 24; Sohail Khan – 3/21, Jerome Taylor – 1/19)