Holden, Naseem fire Desert Vipers to the top spot

Desert Vipers secured top spot on the ILT20 points table after defeating Sharjah Warriorz, who were, as a result, eliminated from the tournament. A collective bowling performance was led by Naseem Shah's three-fer (3 for 35) before Max Holden hit an unbeaten 65 to take the Vipers home with five wickets and three balls to spare.

Having been put into bat, the Warriorz began poorly with Monank Patel and Tom Abell falling in the first two overs. Charles nailed three boundaries before Naseem was greeted by Tom Kohler-Cadmore with a four and a six which also included five-wides in a 19-run over by the Pakistani seamer. Overs six to eight yielded only 13 runs for the Warriorz but Charles nailed two sixes off Qais Ahmed as the partnership went past 50.

Just when the two were on course to rebuild the innings, Naseem castled Kohler-Cadmore with a slower delivery. Charles, however, continued to be in a menacing mood scoring two boundaries off Payne. But the game changed in the 12th over when Qais had Charles and Sikandar Raza dismissed off consecutive deliveries to have the Warriorz five-down within the 12th over. James Rew hit 22 off 20 to keep the scoreboard ticking before falling to Naseem before the latter picked up Harmeet Singh in his final over. A six by Adil Rashid took the Warriorz to 140 for 7.

Vipers' riposte didn't begin in the kind of fashion they would have hoped for. They were 9 for 2 in 2.2 overs with the departure of their openers - Andries Gous and Fakhar Zaman. The task was then on Holden and Sam Curran to rebuild the innings and the duo hammered anything overpitched to the fence early on. In the seventh over, Holden hit two fours and a six off Raza as the momentum continued to shift towards the Vipers. Curran and Holden nailed their pulls to the fence in the middle overs before the former deposited Adil Rashid into the stands to bring up the 50 partnership.

Harmeet broke the partnership with the wicket of Curran who was trapped on the pads after trying to play across the line for 25. Dan Lawrence deposited Harmeet into the stands but the left-armer had the last laugh in his next over as the batter holed out to long-on. Harmeet seemed unplayable and grabbed his third in the 16th over with the wicket of Jason Roy. Through the cluster of wickets, Holden brought up his third 50 of the season.

With 36 required off three overs, Holden and Hasan Nawaz took Harmeet for 14 runs before the former found two crucial boundaries in the 19th over. It brought the equation down to 9 off 6 as Nawaz nailed two maximums to seal the win.

Brief Scores: Sharjah Warriorz 140/7 in 20 overs (Johnson Charles 43, James Rew 22; Naseem Shah 3-35, Qais Ahmed 2-30) lost to Desert Vipers 144/5 in 19.3 overs (Max Holden 65*, Hasan Nawaz 25*; Harmeet Singh 3-29) by five wickets