ILT20 2025: Tim Southee delighted after Sharjah Warriorz qualifies for playoffs

Sharjah Warriorz captain Tim Southee was delighted after they defeated MI Emirates by eight wickets at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, in the ongoing ILT20 on Sunday. With this win, the Warriorz also confirmed their last four berth in the tournament.

MI Emirates posted 173 runs on the board after they were put into bat by Southee. Tom Banton scored 84 runs off 51 balls but the rest of the batters could not contribute much.

On the other hand, Sharjah Warriorz opener Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored a match-winning knock of 91 runs off just 52 balls. Furthermore, Matthew Wade scored a fine knock of 44 runs off just 25 balls to add the finishing touches.

Tim Southee said in the post-match presentation, “A week ago, we were scraping around, but we’ve played the way we should have played in the last week or so. It’s a challenge to gel in a 3-4 week tournament, but we seem to be coming well now. He’s alright (on Roy’s run-out), took a while to cool down, but the way Wade played, he flew in yesterday and showed his class. It’s been a brilliant squad, great environment, we were a little tight at the start, but we’ve done well now.”

Meanwhile, Tom Kohler-Cadmore was awarded Player of the Match for his blistering knock in the second innings.

Cadmore said after the win, “We’ve been playing for three years and we haven’t been to the finals, that was the goal going into this season. Tim (Southee) bowled well and set it up today. I just want to put the pressure back on them, sometimes they’ll get the better of me, but I tend to do well if I get a start and I had some luck as well.”

He added, “My coach always tells me to hit straight and clean, I do sometimes drag it across the line. We got off to a great start, Roy came in and batted beautifully, I apologized to him for getting him run-out, but Wadey played some fine shots and eased us home. We’ve had a great group, the boys have been together even when we lost heavily. Hopefully, we’ll go deeper into the tournament.”

Sharjah Warriorz will play the Eliminator contest on Wednesday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.