WATCH: Tom Kohler-Cadmore slams a four off a full-toss in ILT20, umpire later calls it dead ball and no-ball at the same time

In the fourth game on Sunday, Desert Vipers began their International League T20 2023 (ILT20) campaign with a decisive seven-wicket victory over Sharjah Warriors (January 15). While batting first, Sharjah’s hitters struggled early on and were only able to reach 145/5, with Joe Denly scoring 36 off of 33 and Mohammad Nabi scoring 34 off of 23. With 20 balls remaining, valauble scores from Alex Hales and Sam Billings helped Vipers easily win.

At the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Colin Munro invited Sharjah Warriors to bat first after winning the toss. His choice worked quite well, as the pacers for the Vipers took three important wickets during the powerplay. When the opponent’s captain Moeen Ali was taken out by English left-arm pacer Tymal Mills, the Warriors were struggling at 68/5 in 11 overs.

On the fifth ball of the fifth over, West Indies left-arm seamer Sheldon Cottrell bowled a high full toss to Tom Kohler-Cadmore which got slipped from hands and was awarded as no ball. The ball was very high and would have pitched outside off, but the batter took it on the full and smashed it towards deep extra cover as the ball almost travelled for maximum. But the boundary was not counted as the ball was called a dead ball by the umpire at the same time.

Watch it here:

English batters takes Desert Vipers to victory

But Joe Denly and Mohammad Nabi dominated the last few overs and dragged the Warriors to a respectable total of 145/5 with an unbeaten 77-run partnership. English pacers Mills and Benny Howell took a wicket each and also proved economically impressive for the Vipers.

The Vipers had a difficult time after losing Rohan Mustafa in the opening over. On Chris Woakes’ delivery in the following over, they lost skipper Munro for a duck and appeared under siege throughout their pursuit.

However, a game-changing partnership of 128 runs for the third wicket between Alex Hales and Sam Billings prevented the loss of more wickets. Billings got out after 49 runs, while Hales continued to bat undefeated at 83 off 52 balls to lead the Vipers to an important ILT20 victory. With a wicket and an economy rate of 6.37, Junaid Siddique was Sharjah’s top bowler, although Afghanistan’s pacers Naveen-ul-Haq and Nabi had trouble getting wickets.