An unbeaten partnership of 56 runs between Asif Ali (48 not out) and captain Kieron Pollard (22 not out) ensured New York Strikers defeated Deccan Gladiators by seven wickets in the final match played here on Saturday and won the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament for the first time.

Chasing a target of 91 runs, the Strikers scored 94 runs for three wickets in 9.2 overs and won the match with four balls to spare. After the fall of Niroshan Dickwella’s wicket at a total of 38, Asif and Pollard did not allow any further loss to the strikers and ensured that they dethroned the Gladiators to win the title.

Earlier, after losing the toss and batting first, Deccan Gladiators scored 91 runs for 5 wickets in 10 overs thanks to the excellent batting of Andre Rusell (30 not out) and David Wiese (20 not out). Russell hit two fours and as many sixes in his 18-ball innings, while Wiese hit two sixes and one four in 11 balls. Both of them added 34 runs in 17 balls for the sixth wicket.

For Deccan Gladiators, Tom Kohler-Cadmore added 13 runs while captain Nicholas Pooran added 15 runs. Fabian Allen (1) could not reach double figures.

For the New York Strikers, Sunil Narine took two wickets for 6 runs while Mohammad Jawadullah, George Scrimshaw and Akeal Hussain got one wicket each.

In reply, New York Strikers achieved the target by losing 3 wickets in 9.2 overs. After the fall of two wickets (Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mohammad Wasim) for 7 runs,Niroshan Dickwala (14) made played a crucial knock before Pollard and Ali’s partnership.

Asif hit 2 fours and 4 sixes in his 25-ball innings, while captain Pollard hit 1 four and 1 six in 13 balls. For Gladiators, Trent Boult, Nuwan Thushara and Andre Russell took one wicket each.