DUBAI: England\u2019s star all-rounder and captain of Morrisville Samp Army Moeen Ali is confident of winning the Abu Dhabi (AD) T10 title, getting underway from Tuesday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
\nA total of eight outfits will feature in the prestigious event.
\n\u201cWe had missed out on the last occasion. We came agonizingly close to winning the title but missed it by a whisker. We are confident of putting up a better performance this time around to emerge victorious,\u201d Moeen said in a statement.
\n\u201cWe have a very strong squad. There are hard-hitting batsmen, ferocious pacers and wily spinners. It is the well-balanced squad. I think we stand a great chance of winning the title,\u201d added the England all-rounder, who came out of retirement earlier this year to play in the Ashes against Australia.
\nAbu Dhabi T10 is one of its kind tournament in the world. It is shortest-format league of cricket, which is sanctioned by ICC, affiliated with Emirates Cricket Board and organsied under the patronage of Abu Dhabi Cricket Council.
\nDefending champions Deccan Gladiators and New York Strikers, will get the ball rolling in the opening game of the tournament.
\nApart from the two teams, Northern Warriors, Morrisville Samp Army, Delhi Bulls, Team Abu Dhabi, Bengal Tigers and Chennai Braves are also part of the T10 cricket tournament. The 12-day tournament will conclude on December 9.
\nAfter the completion of the primarily round, the final top-four teams will qualify for the play-offs. Qualifier 1 will see top two teams locking horns on December 8, whereas the third and fourth team will play the eliminator match.
\nThe winner of the eliminator will play the loser of Qualifier 1 for a place in the final while the winner of the Qualifier 1 will directly move to the final showdown.
\nSamp Army who had finished on the second spot in the 2022 edition of the tournament will start their campaign against Northern Warriors in the second match of the opening day.
\nSamp Army owner Ritesh Patel said they are into expansion mode.
\n\u201cWe are expanding our franchise. We are already having teams in US and Zimbabwe version of T10 tournaments. We are exploring more opportunities to spread our wings,\u201d he explained.
\nMoeen believes some changes will take place in the England squad after their dismal performance of at the 2023 ODI World Cup.
\nEngland crashed out of the World Cup before the knock-out stages. They came into the showpiece event as the firm favourites but failed to live up to the expectations.
\n\u201cIt was very disappointing performance by us. We failed to deliver in every aspect of the game. We did not play to our potential. I hope there will be some big changes in the England team,\u201d said Moeen.
\nEngland got their campaign off to a disastrous start against 2019 runners-up New Zealand. They failed to get over the bad start and kept on slumping to new lows as they were beaten by even Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DUBAI: England\u2019s star all-rounder and captain of Morrisville Samp Army Moeen Ali is confident of winning the Abu Dhabi (AD) T10 title, getting underway from Tuesday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. A total of eight outfits will feature in the prestigious event. \u201cWe had missed out on the last occasion. We came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-370705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n