Chasing Team Abu Dhabi’s score of 103-7 from their 10 overs, Northern Warriors’ opening pair of Lewis and Hazratullah Zazai raced to 106-0 with six balls remaining to pull off their second victory in consecutive matches.
Lewis began as the more aggressive member of the opening pair but tapered off as Zazai, Power Hitter of the Match, took over. He hit three of his five fours and two of his three sixes while personally plundering 28 runs in the final three overs.
His power hitting propelled Northern Warriors from 69-0 at the end of the sixth over to victory, his personal tally being 52 not out from 27 balls.
Lewis also faced 27 balls for his 46 that included five fours and three two sixes.
Team Abu Dhabi’s total was built on an opening stand of 39 from 22 balls between Tom Banton and Alex Hales. However, once Banton was dismissed by Tabraiz Shamsi for a 17-ball 33, wickets fell regularly as the Northern Warriors bowling cut into the line-up.
Hales made 30 before he too was dismissed by Shamsi. Colin Ingram made 10 and Asif Khan run out for 19 to be the only other batter in double figures.
Shamsi was the best of the bowlers with 2-17.
The win means the Northern Warriors sit atop the eight-team table with four points from their two matches. Team Abu Dhabi are with a win from their two games and sit seventh on the table.
Smith hit four fours and two sixes to help propel Gladiators from 92-4 in the eighth over to 134-5. He also took 1-21 to see his team go top of the table on 12 points but with a superior net run-date over Team Abi Dhabi.
Tom Moores got the Gladiators off to a strong start smearing four fours and two sixes in his 19-ball 39. Andre Russell chipped in with an 11-ball 22 even as Oshane Thomas did his best to contain them taking 3-20.
In reply, Northern Warriors batters got good starts but were not able to make them count.
Kennar Lewis scored 22 from 10 balls, Rovman Powell got 25 from 18 while Moeen Ali scored 22 and Ross Whiteley scored 26 from 13 but Warriors kept falling behind the asking rate and eventually ran out of balls at 115-4.
Russell took 1-23 for the Gladiators.
Batting first, the 2018 champions made 126-4 from their 10 overs spurred by Powell’s 63 from 27 balls. The Jamaican all-allrounder smashed four fours and six sixes that propelled Warriors from 42-3 at the end of four overs.
Powell and Samit Patel added 80 in the last six overs before he got out off the penultimate ball of the innings. Patel remained unbeaten on 21 from 13 balls.
Needing 125 for victory, the Tigers scored 10 runs from the opening over but then lost Andre Fletcher for one at the start of the second over.
Willy Jacks replaced Fletcher and set about the bowling. He and Hazratullah Zazai added 23 for the second wicket before the latter was dismissed for 17.
However, before Jacks got going, he was losing wickets at the other end as Faf du Plessis (1), Karim Janar (16) and Johnson Charles (1) all went cheaply to see the Tigers slip to 58-5.
With 23 balls left Tigers needed 67 for victory and Jacks and Benny Howell delivered. Jacks hit eight fours and three sixes while Howell smashed four fours and a six in the 11 balls he faced to power their team to victory with five balls to spare.
Samit Patel gave up 19 runs in seven balls to finish with 1-19 while Rayad Emrit took 1-31 from his two overs. Chris Jordan was the most expensive of the bowlers, his one over going for 21 runs.
