Abu Dhabi Knight Riders captain Sunil Narine showered praise on the team’s batting unit for not losing too many wickets in the Powerplay overs after their 30-run win against Sharjah Warriorz at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi in the ongoing ILT20 on Wednesday. The win lifted the Knight Riders to the third spot while the Warriorz slipped to fifth.

After Sharajah Warriorz captain Tim Southee decided to bowl first, ADKR posted a fighting score of 159 runs on the board. The home team came up with a collective batting effort, with Laurie Evans top-scoring with 39 runs.

Sunil Narine said in the post-match presentation, “Generally here, batting gets easier in the second innings. We did a good job in the powerplay with the bat to not lose too many wickets. If you have set guys for the last 3-4 overs, you would always have a good total.”

On the other hand, David Willey was the pick of the bowlers as he returned with impressive figures of 3-19 in his quota of four overs. Willey accounted for in-form Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Jason Roy, and Karim Janat as he got the new ball to swing.

Willey said after he was adjudged Player of the Match, “Always trying to take wickets. Try to swing the new ball and take wickets (talking about intent). Generally scoreboard dictates what we need, I read the game pretty well and try and deliver what is required. I made a career out of swinging the ball and always want to stay a step ahead of the batter.”

Meanwhile, Sharjah Warriorz captain Tim Southee admitted it was a tricky pitch to bat and said they will need to move on from this loss.

Southee said, “It was a tricky pitch. Still early stages of the tournament, we will dust ourselves off and look forward to the next ones. We would like to be a lot lower than 70 (talking about the dot balls) and minimise that. We know this game can change pretty quickly. We got a day off tomorrow and we go again.”