After winning the toss Warriors’ skipper Ashan Ali elected to post a big score in batting first. It would be the Penguins, however, would take the early upper hand when Morgan capitalised on a mix up in the middle by running out opener Yasir for a duck in the first over. A handy 21-run stand was formed over the next 3 overs before Adele Ali (15) picked out the safe hands of Morgan at square leg, Paddy Ledeboer claiming his first scalp of the day.
Following the power-play and with score reading 51-2, Simon Wetherell was introduced into the attack and immediately lured the batsmen into going aerial as both Abubakar (12) and captain Ashan Ali (16) fell in the same manner with Rhys-Thomas and Stu Hamilton holding onto their catches.
Post drinks saw Wetherell continue to bamboozle the batsman and the off-spinner picked up another brace in the 12th over firstly trapping Saif (11) LBW before Rana (0) was stumped through some handy glove work from Anthony Van blerk on the following ball.
Shakiel Raja (33) provided some much needed resistance for his side before an unfortunate inside edge onto his stumps saw him removed of the bowling of Livermore with the score now reading 105-7 with 3 overs remaining.
Unfortunately for the betting side only one other batsman Zohaib Khan (13) would reach double figures as Ledeboer and the Penguins closed out the innings’ death others impressively to restrict the final score to a well below par 123/9 in the allotted 20 overs.
Defending a sub-par total, Warriors knew early wickets would be crucial to have any chance of an unlikely victory and they got just that when Adeeli Ali and Abubakar combined to stump opener Rhys-Thomas (2) in the 2nd over. Despite the early wicket however runs continued to flow freely as Van Blerk (31) looked to make full use of the fielding restrictions with some cracking cover drives early on.
With the score 48-2 after 6 overs an early finish looked likely before Adele Ali cleaned up Chataway (7) for his second of the day. Shakiel Raja was rewarded for some tight bowling the following over as Van Blerk could only pick out Yasir at long on. This brought about a tricky period for the Penguins as just another 13 runs were added to the total over the next 3 overs as the Warriors bowlers battled hard to stay in the contest.
Following the midway drinks break both Morgan (35*) and McMillan (15) started to play more freely as the pair upped the scoring rate before the latter could only pick out Raja at mid-wicket with the score 93-4 after 13 overs. Feline lover Hamilton made a triumphant return to the Penguins side after a long absence with a briskly made 18* including 3 boundaries from just 12 deliveries to put his side on the brink of victory before Morgan finished the job in style with a pair of trademark sixes over the square leg boundary in the 16th over to seal a 6-wicket win.
Man of the match went to Wetherell for bowling returns of 4-13 from his four overs. Other performances of note included Ledeboer’s figures of 3-18 whilst Morgan’s (35*) and Van Blerk’s (31) ensured a straightforward run chase for their side.
Shakiel Raja’s 33 with the bat and bowling figures of 1-11 as well as Adeel Ali’s returns of 2-9 with the ball stood out in a losing cause.
This Sunday ( Feb 5) sees the league move to a double-header format as both Warriors and KCC look for their first points in the morning game (10:30am), whilst Penguins and Andaman CC face off in a top of the table clash in the afternoon (2pm). More details can be found at the Phuket Cricket or ACG Facebook pages.
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