Desert Vipers bag their fifth win against Dubai Capitals in an action-packed encounter with economical death bowling, courtesy of Tom Curran and Matheesha Pathirana
Desert Vipers bagged another win by 12 runs after fighting tooth and nail against Dubai Capitals in a last over thriller in the ILT20. While Skipper Colin Munro was the highest run-scorer for the Vipers with 40 runs to only manage 149/9 in the first innings, Vipers’ bowlers bowled economically, courtesy of Tom Curran and Matheesha Pathirana in the death overs, to defend 150 runs against a determined Capitals side to take the side to another victory.
Dubai Capitals’ openers Robin Uthappa and Hazratullah Zazai both fell to the hands of the Gus Atkinson and Sheldon Cottrell opening duo. After them, Chirag Suri and Dasun Shanaka attempted to kickstart the innings, but they could only manage 36 in the powerplay. Shanaka tried to power through with a couple of sixes in the middle, but it all failed when Wanindu Hasaranga struck for the Vipers to dismiss his fellow Sri Lankan. The Vipers gained more control as Suri fell at 53/4, courtesy of Rohan Mustafa. Capitals’ skipper Rovman Powell and Sikandar Raza tried to resurrect the innings with their 32-run partnership, but Raza’s attempt at a later dab was caught behind by Billings, again off Mustafa. Yusuf Pathan joined the run chase as the Capitals needed 65 off seven overs.
The veteran Pathan treated onlookers to some of his trademark shots by going for a four and six off Tom Curran in the 16th over. Matheesha Pathirana pulled back for the Vipers as he bowled an economical 17th over and gave away just three runs with the Capitals needing 30 runs at that point.
Tom Curran was thrown into the mix by skipper Munro, who managed to restrict Pathan to just a boundary in the 18th over. Meanwhile, Pathirana too made things harder for the Capitals in the 19th over by just giving away six runs. Curran capped off proceedings by giving just four runs away and securing a comprehensive victory over the Dubai Capitals as they could only amass 175/5 in their 20 over-quota.
Earlier, the Desert Vipers got off to a relatively slow start having lost their opening batters within three overs. Rohan Mustafa was the first to go, after being caught behind by Uthappa. Akif Raja got a big wicket of Alex Hales in the third over when the batter completely missed his inswinger.
Skipper Colin Munro and Sam Billings were then able to stabilize innings putting up a 65-run partnership in 42 balls. Munro got off to a strong start with some emphatic batting against Fred Klassen. Two boundaries and a six in the fourth over from the New Zealander saw the Vipers gain momentum. Billings joined in shortly after with some big hitting against Akif Rajas’ medium-pace bowling. Billings and Munro fought back by ending the powerplay for the Vipers with 68/2.
However, this momentum soon dipped when Billings fell to Adam Zampa. He looked to sweep the spinner's delivery, but missed. The umpire's decision forced the Englishman to depart for a mere 25 off 22 balls.
Wanindu Hasaranga then came in for the Vipers but did not show signs of settling in. The Sri Lankan went to sweep Zampa’s lofty full toss at the stumps, but got caught at long on for a mere nine off seven runs.
Zampa struck again in the 14th over when skipper Munro went for a pull shot and got caught at deep wicket. Later on, some steady hitting by Tom Curran and Sherfane Rutherford anchored their team's innings. However, the Vipers fell like dominoes in the last two overs as Rutherford, Ali Nasser and Sheldon Cottrell were all victims of Fred Klaasen. The Vipers wrapped up their 20 overs with a respectable 149 on the board.
Brief Scores: Desert Vipers 149/9 in 20 overs (C Munro 40, S Billings 25; A Zampa 3/16) defeated Dubai Capitals 137/5 in 20 overs (Y Pathan 35*, R Powell 34*; R Mustafa 2/27)
