The inaugural season of the Ajman T20 Cup started with the game between Deccan Gladiators and Ajman Heroes. The game was played at the Malek Cricket Stadium in Ajman on March 13. Gladiators won the toss and elected to field first. The decision proved correct as they took three early wickets at the score of 24 in three overs. At this stage, Heroes lost their top three batters in the form of Adnan Ul Mulk Nawab, Adnaan Khan, and Faizan Sheikh.
Danish Qureshi took the wicket of Mulk Nawab while Adeel Ahmad Shafique took the wickets of Khan and Sheikh. Dawood Ejaz (54) and Shahrukh Sheikh (4) stitched a partnership of 33 runs before the latter was dismissed by Laxman Manjrekar. Apart from Ejaz, no other batter could go past the 20-run mark, let alone score a fifty. Heroes were restricted to 141 all-out in 18.4 overs, with Qureshi and Ahmad taking three wickets each, Saifullah Noor taking two, and Laxman Manjrekar taking one.
In reply, the Gladiators openers Ansar Khan (34) and Hameed Khan (13) provided an explosive start with a partnership of 49 runs in 3.5 overs. Hameed was the first wicket to fall against Adnan Arif and Ansar followed the next ball. The innings was going on nicely even when they had lost five wickets. The team scored 106/5 in 12 overs as they lost the wickets of Hassan Khan second (6), Mayank Chowdary (16), and Rahul Chopra (20) in the middle overs.
Adnan Arif got rid of Hassan Khan, while Amjad Gul got rid of Mayank Chowdary, and Rahul Chopra was stumped by Adnaan Khan. However, the innings from Waqas Ali (37*) and Laxman Manjrekar (14) took the team over the line with 17 balls to spare and five wickets in hand. For Heroes, Adnan Arif took three wickets while Amjad Gul and Mulk Nawab took one each.
