Carter completed the chase with two sixes of the final two deliveries of the game and Sohail was awarded the Player of the Match.
Asked to bat first, the Atlanta Riders’ openers Robin Uthappa and Lendl Simmons started off things in a steady manner. The duo took the Riders to the 50-run mark in the fifth over, having smashed 3 sixers and 4 boundaries between themselves in that time.
The openers, well set by now, were setting up the platform to tee off in the final few overs, even as the New York Warriors bowlers tried to dry up the runs. By the 7th over, the Riders were at 72/0 with Simmons doing the bulk of the scoring. Simmons was dismissed for 41 in the 8th over and the score reached 83/1 by the end of that over.
Uthappa departed for 32 after that and Dwayne Smith was joined by Hamilton Masakadza, with the Zimbabwean becoming the next wicket to fall at the beginning of the final over.
Sohail Khan then dismissed Hammad Azam and Grant Elliot off consecutive deliveries, to complete a hat-trick. The Pakistani bowler knocked over Harmeet Singh, making it four in four, after which Smith and Nasir Hossain took the Riders over to 103/6 in their quota of 10 overs.
In response, the New York Warriors’ opener Kamran Akmal departed in the first over for 4, bringing Richard Levi and Tillakaratne Dilshan together. Levi was the next wicket to fall in the second over, off the bowling of Elias Sunny for 4.
That brought Dilshan and Jonathan Carter to the middle, and the Sri Lankan looked to attack, but was dismissed in the fifth over for 24 with the Warriors at 39/3. In walked the dangerous Shahid Afridi with 62 runs needed in the final five overs of the game. Afridi and Carter counter-attacked before the Pakistan cricketer was packed off for 14. In the final two overs, the Warriors would need 30 runs to win and had 6 wickets in hand.
Carter and Misbah-ul-Haq brought it down to 22 off the final over. Carter smacked three sixes and Misbah hit one, as the Warriors romped over the line to a grand finish, winning six wickets.
Brief Scores: Atlanta Riders 103/6 (Lendl Simmons 41, Robin Uthappa 32; Sohail Khan 4-15, Umaid Asif 1-20) lost by 6 wickets against New York Warriors 109/4 (Jonathan Carter 41*, Tillakaratne Dilshan – 24; Harmeet Singh 2-8, Elias Sunny 1-19)
–IANS
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