Waseem and Holder lead Royal Desert Champions and Yas Lions to Abu Dhabi T10 wins

Royal Desert Champions and Yas Lions won the two Abu Dhabi T10 matches at Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, through very different passages of play. Royal Desert Champions recovered from 34 for three to reach 124 for four and defeat UAE Bulls by six wickets with five legal balls unused. Yas Lions made 132 for five and held Arabian Aces to 103 for seven, winning by 29 runs. Muhammad Waseem anchored the recovery in the first game, with Sherfane Rutherford supplying most of the acceleration. Jason Holder, the Yas captain, influenced both innings of the second match, hitting 21 from seven balls and taking three wickets for 11 runs.

The results gave the tournament’s six-team league a sharper shape. Yas recorded their third win in four matches. Royal Desert Champions won for the first time in four, while UAE Bulls dropped to one win from four and Arabian Aces moved to two wins and two defeats. There were six scheduled league games left for each of those teams. In a format that gives first place an automatic berth in the final and leaves second and third to play off for the other berth, this was a useful time for Yas to build a lead in wins over the teams they faced on opening day and on Wednesday. It was also a chance for Royal Desert Champions to begin closing the gap.

How the Bulls reached 123

Royal Desert Champions chose to field after winning the toss. Maheesh Theekshana made the first breakthrough, drawing Aneurin Donald out of his ground and allowing Phil Salt to complete the stumping. Andre Fletcher and Khawaja Nafay then added 44 in 21 balls. Nafay scored 27 from 11, hitting two sixes and three fours. The score was 56 when Gulbadin Naib dismissed him, and it was still 56 when Fletcher was run out on the following ball. Those two deliveries changed the batting side’s available resources while leaving the scoring requirement for a strong total where it had been.

Kieron Pollard contributed 23 from ten and Shadab Khan finished unbeaten on 15 from seven. The Bulls reached 123 for seven, with 27 runs in the first two overs and 36 in the last three after sitting at 87 for four at the end of the seventh. Chris Jordan, Keemo Paul, Ali Naseer, Gulbadin and Theekshana all took a wicket. Naseem Shah went wicketless but conceded 21 across his two overs, below the Bulls’ innings rate. The wickets and the more economical spells helped set the chase at 124, or just over two runs per legal ball across the full innings.

Three wickets in seven balls, then 74 in 25

Salt and Brandon King took 31 from the first two overs of the reply. Shadab then trapped King leg before with the first ball of the third over and bowled Salt with its last. Nuwan Thushara had Nicholas Pooran caught behind with the first ball of the fourth. The three dismissals came in seven legal deliveries. They reduced the chase from an opening stand with a scoring cushion to a situation in which the middle order had to preserve enough wickets to use the remaining balls. Salt’s 22 had come from ten deliveries, including three sixes. His departure removed the batter who had set the pace.

Waseem and Rutherford responded with a fourth-wicket stand of 74 in 25 balls. Rutherford made 40 from 13, including five fours and three sixes. Those eight boundary shots accounted for 38 of his runs. Waseem contributed 28 from 12 during the stand, and the rest came in extras. The contribution from both ends meant that the Bulls could not contain the chase simply by keeping the more aggressive batter off strike. It also meant the target had shrunk to 16 when Rutherford was caught at 108 for four with 16 legal balls available.

Waseem stayed to finish on 35 from 18, and Gulbadin was unbeaten on eight from five. They completed the chase at 124 for four after 9.1 overs. Shadab, who also dismissed Rutherford, finished with three for 15 from two overs. His bowling gave the Bulls a real opportunity despite the fast start, and his two overs accounted for three of the four wickets they took. The decisive problem was the scoring between those wickets. A target can be difficult when a chasing side needs two runs from every ball. At the point Rutherford departed, the Champions could complete the same chase at a run a ball, with six wickets still in hand.

The scorecard also shows where the runs were conceded. The Bulls used seven bowlers, and the two overs from Sunil Narine cost 33. Muhammad Rohid Khan conceded 20 in one over and Mohammad Amir 17 in one, including four wides. A wide adds a run and generally leaves the batting side the same number of legal balls, a valuable combination in a ten-over chase. The Champions received six wides altogether. That is a separate strand of the recovery from Rutherford’s hitting. It helps explain why Shadab’s figures and the team’s total concession were so far apart.

Yas found a way from 32 for two to 132

Arabian Aces also chose to field after winning the toss. They removed James Vince for 14 and Andries Gous for 16, leaving Yas at 32 for two after 3.2 overs. Dasun Shanaka and Tom Moores then added 66 from 25 balls. Each hit four sixes. Moores made 35 from 16 and was dismissed with the total at 98. Shanaka was still there at the end on 38 from 17, and Holder added a late 21 from seven, including two sixes. The Aces dismissed Karim Janat at 100 for four at the end of the eighth, leaving the last 12 legal balls to produce the final 32 runs.

Richard Gleeson’s two for 17 was a strong individual return for the Aces. He removed both Moores and Janat in the eighth over, which the scorecard records as yielding two runs. In a competition with ten overs per side, even that over did not lock the innings into a lower finish. The next two still offered a fifth of the available deliveries, and Holder and Shanaka used that time to take Yas to 132 for five. The swing between the eighth over and the close illustrates how much of the final target can be decided after a fielding team has just produced one of its best passages.

Holder and Willey reduced the Aces’ room to recover

Holder dismissed Paul Walter and Tom Kohler-Cadmore in his first over, the second of the chase. David Willey removed Liam Livingstone in the third, leaving the Aces at 14 for three. Fazalhaq Farooqi took Moeen Ali’s wicket at 34 for four. Andre Russell and Sam Billings gave the chase a short lift, putting on 36 in 14 balls, but Willey ended their partnership when Billings was caught for 12. Holder returned to bowl Russell for 29 from 14. At 75 for six after 7.4 overs, the Aces needed 58 from 14 legal balls. The early wickets had left too much scoring for the final overs.

Alishan Sharafu still made 22 from ten for Arabian Aces before Akeal Hosein dismissed him in the final over. The innings finished on 103 for seven. Holder’s three for 11 and Willey’s two for 20 were taken in a combined four overs. Those overs cost 31, less than eight per over, against a starting requirement of 13.3. Other Yas bowlers could afford to concede more while that gap remained. Farooqi and Hosein each supplied a wicket, and the Aces completed all ten overs without being able to use the last phase of the innings to reduce the required rate to a manageable figure.

What the same ground revealed about two chases

Both chasing teams lost three wickets in the opening four overs. The point at which they lost them was different. Royal Desert Champions had 34 by the time Pooran went at 3.1. The Aces had 14 when Livingstone went at 2.3 and faced a larger target. Yas had scored only nine more than the Bulls, but the Aces were further behind the required pace from the start. Waseem and Rutherford could change their game with a sustained partnership. Russell and Billings had a short productive stand, but it began at four down and ended before either could build on it. The score at the fall of the third wicket mattered alongside the number of wickets lost.

The margins at the end make another distinction visible. The Champions needed only the first legal delivery of their tenth over to get to 124. Their margin of six wickets records the number of dismissals they could still afford, while five balls unused records their time margin. The Aces, by comparison, used the full 60 legal balls and still finished 29 short of the Lions’ total. In this format, wickets preserve options but they do not add time. The two finishes show why a scorecard has to be read against the remaining deliveries as well as the remaining batters.

Wednesday also gave two UAE players significant innings at the same venue. Waseem’s unbeaten 35 linked the Champions’ fastest partnership to their finish. Sharafu scored rapidly after coming in with the Aces already under severe pressure. The two jobs called for different decisions. Waseem could adjust the urgency of his batting once Rutherford had cut the target down. Sharafu had to look for boundaries while the required rate was climbing. Their scores are a useful reminder of what a batting average or a strike rate leaves out when used alone: where the player joined the innings, the time available and the quality of support at the other end.

The league is in its tenth edition. The organisers list six franchises, and Cricket World’s competition guide sets out a double round robin, with ten league matches per team and the play-off and final scheduled for 20 November. Yas opened with a defeat by UAE Bulls on 7 November but have since beaten Emirates Eagles, United Tigers and Arabian Aces. The Champions had lost to the Eagles, Aces and Tigers before Wednesday’s win. Those sequences explain why their meeting with Yas on Friday, 13 November, carries weight for both. It gives Yas another chance to strengthen a position built over three matches and the Champions an immediate opportunity to build on a first successful chase.

Friday’s schedule puts the two teams beaten on Wednesday against one another as well. Arabian Aces meet UAE Bulls, while United Tigers play Emirates Eagles. Since the six franchises meet each opponent twice, the schedule offers a second match against a side that has already beaten them. For the Aces and Bulls, Friday also provides a direct opportunity to gain a win on a nearby rival in the standings. That is a concrete consequence of the double-header, even with more than half the league programme still to come.