Theekshana and Sams excel in Warriors' win over Capitals

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter

Maheesha Theekshana and Daniel Sams shared seven wickets between them to help Sharjah Warriors set up a nine-wicket victory over Dubai Capitals in their DP World ILT20 match at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday.

After restricting Capitals for a paltry 104, Warriors raced to the victory for the loss of just one wicket. With their second consecutive victories in two matches, Warriors climbed to the second spot in the table with six points from five matches.

Sri Lankan spinner Theekshana ripped through the middle-order of the Capitals. He wreaked havoc by picking up four wickets. No Capital batsmen seemed to have an answer for the wily spinner as he was almost unplayable. They lost the wickets in quick succession.

Every time Capitals batsmen tried to take a step forward they were pegged back by two by a charged-up Warriors’ bowling attack, led by Theeshana.

He had Sam Billings caught by Gregory before trapping Max Holden as Capitals lost two wickets within a span of three balls. In his next over, he caught Rovman Powell plumb leg before wickets and trapped Jason holder as Capitals were reduced to 62/7 from 44/3.

Sams returned to wipe off the tail. Roelof van der Merwe and Sikander Raza showed some resistance as they added 23 runs for the eighth wicket -- the highest partnership of the innings.

Van der Merwe holed out to Jawadullah off Sams after scoring a breezy 14-ball 21. Raza became the last victim of Sam. His fighting innings of 22 runs off 25 balls ended when Kohler-Cadmore caught him at the boundary as Sams returned with a figure of 3/28.  Raza hit two sixes during his stint at the crease.

Chasing, Warriors’ openers Niroshan Dickwella and Johnson Charles gave a blistering start to set the tone for a successful chase. They added 70 runs for the first wicket to all but end the hopes of a come-from-behind victory for Capitals.

Both the openers were unstoppable. They played the shots all over the ground on their will. Dickwella hit six boundaries in his 30-ball 36 while Charles’ knock was studded with four fours and one six.

After the dismissal of Dickwella, Charles and Denly shared an unbeaten partnership of 35 runs to take their team through. Charles remained unbeaten on 43. His 33-ball inning was studded with four boundaries and one six while Denly hit three fours and one six in his unbeaten 16-ball 23 as Warriors chased down the target in 13.1 overs.

Earlier, it was Mark Watt, who shocked Capitals with an electrifying start as he triggered the collapse with the dismissal of Rahmanullah Gurbaz. He uprooted the stumps of Afghanistan’s fire-brand batsman.

Capitals’ problem of finding a good opening pair is still not resolved as the tournament is almost reaching the half-way stage.

Their permanent opener and captain David Warner is struggling for form.  His scores in the last five matches have been 1,20,0,21 and 16. He has scored 58 runs in five innings with an average of around 10.5 runs.

UAE’s rising pacer Muhammad Jawadullah got the prize scalp of Warner as wicket-keeper Dickwella took a stunner to get rid of the former Australian captain.

Even an out-of-form Warner is a prized wicket for any bowler. Picking up the wicket of Warner will surely boost the confidence of the young pacer and will be a source of great inspiration for him. This may well go down for generations in his lineage as a legend.

Since the departure of Jake Fraser-McGurk, their problem in batting seems to have compounded as they are also struggling to find his replacement at number three.

Capitals' opening has been inconsistent and their middle-order unstable. They are losing too many wickets in the first few overs in every match. Which leaves a lot to be done by the batsmen coming down the order. They have to consolidate the innings as well as spur run rate.