The rains which has impacted the International League T20 competition look to have dissipated which means the ILT20 tournament can resume with a double header on Saturday beginning with the Sharjah Warriors taking on the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in Sharjah.
This is a really big game for the Knight Riders because a win for the Warriors would move them six points clear of Abu Dhabi and effectively eliminate them from the competition. Even with a win the Knight Riders would have work to do to make the latter stages but at least they would give themselves a chance.
Sharjah Warriors
Prior to the rains which came over the last week, the Sharjah Warriors had a bit of an up and down look to their season. They opened up with three pretty heavy defeats in matches in which they barely contributed to the cause, however they had won two matches on the spin before things were brought to a halt. They were well in control of their rained off match with Dubai on Thursday as well and will be annoyed not to have the chance to complete the job against a direct rival for a top four spot.
I mentioned at the beginning of the tournament how the Sharjah Warriors were going to be impacted by international call ups and this is the time where they are going to bite them. To be fair, they have acted to get a couple of handy replacements in to lighten that impact but the likes of Dawid Malan and Moeen Ali are tough acts to replace. Sharjah have suddenly started bowling really well though and if their batting follows suit there is no reason why they can’t come with a flourish.
Abu Dhabi Knight Riders
This has been a rancid season for the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders. It has been so bad that the rain might actually have been a good thing last week as it saved them from any more punishment. You’ve got to think they are all but out of the tournament and will definitely need to win three of their last four matches to get back into it, but with their terrible net run rate they are more likely to need to win out from here and there just haven’t been any signs of that happening.
To be fair to the Knight Riders, they probably put up their best showing of the competition so far in their last completed match. It was the first time in the tournament that they have put more than 135 runs on the board but it still wasn’t enough to get them over the line. A feature of their struggles has been their bowling. They have conceded more than 175 in three of their five matches and were well on their way to giving up similar totals in the other two games when targets were reached by the opposition. That has to improve.
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Key Players
Evin Lewis has done little to nothing in this tournament so far for the Sharjah Warriors but with a host of West Indies players in the opposition here now would be a good time to remind everyone how good he is. He’ll know the attack he is facing.
Abu Dhabi put up 170 last time out courtesy of a good innings from Dhananjaya de Silva and it was actually a surprise that his bowling wasn’t called upon. That might change here so the Sri Lankan could do with another good game to get the Knight Riders over the line.
Betting
Usually Sharjah is often a high scoring ground, although the trend over the last couple of years is starting to go against that. It wasn’t particularly high scoring when the T20 World Cup was here in 2021 and it wasn’t much better in the Asia Cup a year ago. The scores here this season haven’t been particularly high either apart from one innings from the Gulf Giants. Since then this place has been under covers with all the rain that has been in this part of the world.
That will only have cleared up on the day of the game so I’m not expecting a particularly fluent wicket for batting here, while the outfield might be heavy and sluggish as well. That makes me think the run line at 318.5 could be a little on the high side. In among the rain here on Thursday, Dubai Capitals were 17/4 on a pitch which was doing plenty and I expect it to assist the bowlers here too. Throw into the mix that Abu Dhabi haven’t batted well all season and Sharjah are missing two key components to their batting and it all sways to the under to me.
Tips
Back Under 318.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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