Alex Hales’ 99 went in vain as the Vipers suffered their first loss of the season.
Desert Vipers suffered their first loss in ILT20 League after succumbing to a five-wicket loss against Gulf Giants at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. Alex Hales’ 99 went in vain as the Giants’ Chris Lynn and Shimron Hetmyer made 71 and 70 respectively to get their team over the finish line.
Defending a target of 196, Sheldon Cottrell knew what was required when he opened the bowling for Vipers and dismissed Giants’ skipper James Vince for four runs in the first over itself.
While the Giants’ new batter Chris Lynn played cautiously, their other opener Tom Banton was caught out off a Tom Curran delivery in the fourth over. Rehan Ahmed was next to return to the dugout for the Giants after he stepped out of his crease and was stumped by Sam Billings at the start of the fifth over.
Shimron Hetmyer could have also been dismissed by the Vipers on the penultimate ball of the powerplay but a dropped catch gave him a lifeline. Hetmyer cashed in on the dropped catch by striking three successive sixes in the next over.
Hetmyer continued to take the attack to the bowlers with his aggressive batting approach and Chris Lynn also played his part as he began to show his range of shots. They brought up their 50-run partnership in the ninth over.
Lynn then showed no signs of slowing down as he hit boundaries in the 10th over and brought up his fifty in the next over. Hetmyer soon followed suit as he celebrated his fifty off 26 balls in the 12th over.
Things got heated up as Lynn and Hetmyer continued to punish Vipers’ bowlers, until Cottrell broke the partnership in the 14th over by dismissing Hetmyer for 70 off 35.
The Giants needed 35 off 24 from the last four overs when Gus Atkinson took out Chris Lynn after he made 71 off 42. An enthralling 19th over saw David Wiese and Liam Dawson take control of the match as they combined to smash three fours, leaving only three runs required in the final over of the match.
The final over of the match saw Wiese and Dawson reach the target in singles with three balls to spare.
Earlier, Alex Hales and Rohan Mustafa wasted no time as they opened the innings for Desert Vipers with a flurry of fours in the first few overs until Hales further accelerated the innings by hitting a few sixes.
Hales and Mustafa had scored 48 and 13 respectively by the end of the powerplay, with the Vipers’ score reading 62/0. Unfortunately, Mustafa’s stay in the middle came to an end in the seventh over as he got stumped and was dismissed for 23.
At the other end, Hales continued his fine form and brought up his fifty off 26 balls at the beginning of the eighth over. The Vipers’ skipper Colin Munro, who had joined Hales in the middle after Mustafa’s dismissal, quickly got his eye in and continued his solid form that saw him score a fifty in the last match.
Hales, meanwhile, nearly walked back to the dugout in the 14th over after a Richard Gleeson yorker brought the opener to his knees but couldn’t quite dismiss him. However, the same over witnessed Gleeson get the wicket of Munro after the Vipers’ skipper was caught at deep mid wicket.
Hales responded by hitting two well-executed sixes in the 15th over, while Sherfane Rutherford, who had joined the Englishman at the crease, also struck a maximum at the start of the 16th over.
The following over saw Hales hit two fours and move to 99. However, just when it looked like the Englishman was about to score back-to-back hundreds in the ILT20 League, Hales was caught at the fence and fell heartbreakingly short of another ton.
The next batter for the Vipers Tom Curran walked back after just two balls as David Wiese’s yorker got the better of him. Sherfane Rutherford then rallied and struck two fours as well as a six in the final few overs of the innings as the Vipers finished on 195/4 at the end of their quota of 20 overs.
Brief Scores: Desert Vipers 195/4 in 20 overs (A Hales 99, C Munro 39; R Gleeson 1/19) lost to Gulf Giants 196/5 in 19.3 overs (C Lynn 71, S Hetmyer 70; S Cottrell 2/24)
