MI Emirates beat Gulf Giants by 45 runs to book berth in ILT20 final

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter

Spinners Akeal Hosein and Vijayakanth Viyaskanth shared five wickets between them to lift MI Emirates (MIE) over Gulf Giants by 45 runs in the first qualifier of the ILT20 in Dubai on Wednesday.

With the victory, MIE booked their berth in the final while Giants still have one more chance as they will play Dubai Capitals in the second qualifier on Thursday. The winner of the second qualifier will play MIE in the final at the same venue on Saturday.

Defending 163/7, MIE had a brilliant start. Pooran’s gamble of bringing spinner Akeal Hosein paid off. The West Indian dislodged the bails of captain James Vince to dismiss him for a golden duck.

Losing the wicket of the captain for naught pushed the Giants on the back foot from the word go. Giants kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals and failed to get the partnerships going.

In the third over, Mohamad Rohid sent the wicket of Jordan Cox tumbling. Hosein struck again to send back Chris Lynn as the Giants lost their third wicket with just 24 runs on the board.

The Giants needed one or two big partnerships but their batsmen were getting out by playing reckless shots. Not a single batsman tried to adapt to the situation and build a partnership, which was the need of the hour.

Usman was waging the lone battle with a fighting innings. But he did not get support from the other batsmen. Viyaskanth had Jamie Smith caught by David as the crisis deepened in the struggling Giants' camp.

Shimron Hetmyer, the rescue man of Giants, was the next man to go. He became the only victim of Bravo, who has taken over 500 wickets in T20 cricket and scored over ten thousand runs.

Jamie Overton was found short of his crease while trying to take a suicidal single which never existed. To heap more misery on the Giants, Viyaskanth got Usman caught by Boult as Giants were left tottering at 69/7. In his next over, Viyaskanth trapped Liam Dawson in front of wickets for his third scalp.

Chris Jordan lit up the stadium with a late blitz as he smacked a 15-ball 32, hitting three sixes and two fours. His brave effort went in vain as he was caught at long off by Boult off the bowling of Waqar Salamkheil. He also got rid of Daniel Worrall to wrap up the Giants’ innings for 118.

After getting off to a decent start, MIE innings was derailed by a triple strike by Daniel Worrell. He triggered the collapse with the dismissal of the UAE captain Muhammad Waseem, after both the openers had added 34 runs for the first wicket.

The dismissal of Waseem opened the floodgates for Worrell. He ripped through the middle order to reduce MIE to 46/3 from 33/0.

After uprooting the stumps of Waseem, a charged-up Worrell rattled the stumps of Andre Fletcher on the next delivery as MIE lost two wickets in two balls to be pushed on the back foot.

In his next over, Worrell got rid of Kusal Perera by getting the Sri Lankan caught by wicket-keeper Smith. After losing three quick wickets within a span of nine runs, MIE needed a big partnership to post a fighting total.

The two stalwarts of the West Indies Nichlos Pooran and Dwayne Bravo took to the centre. MIE had their best pair on the pitch. They started the rebuilding process gradually to bring the innings back on the track.

Both the batsmen played nonchalantly as they shared a 45-run stand for the fourth wicket to bring the score 91/4. Soon Pooran got back into his groove.

He flexed his muscles and hit three huge sixes and two boundaries in his 28-ball 34. MIE looked set for a big total before Zuhaib Zubair struck to break the dangerous-looking partnership.

The young UAE spinner set up a bait with a flighted delivery and Pooran decided to take the aerial route. He failed to connect it properly and was taken by Hetmyer near the boundary rope.

Pooran’s wicket brought some respite in the Giants’ camp. Soon after the departure of Pooran, Bravo holed out to Cox off Muzarabani.

Tim David and Kieron Pollard combined to take the innings forward. They added a quick-fire 45 runs for the sixth wicket. Pollard played a 14-ball 27 runs cameo as David struck 29 off 21 deliveries with the help of four boundaries before being caught by Hetmyer. Pollard’s knock was peppered with three fours and one six.