Du Plooy shines as Capitals set up final showdown with MIE

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter

Leus du Plooy smacked a whirlwind fifty to steer Dubai Capitals to a nine-wicket victory over the Gulf Giants in the second qualifier of the DP World ILT20 in Sharjah on Thursday.

After restricting Giants to a paltry 138/6, Capitals achieved the target for the loss of one wicket with 25 balls remaining. With the victory, they have set up the title showdown with MI Emirates.

Du Plooy and Tom Banton added a blitzkrieg 98 for the first wicket to set the tone for a successful chase. Du Plooy smashed a 40-ball 63 with the help of five fours and three sixes while Banton scored a patient 38 off 38 deliveries, featuring four fours.

Giants bowlers not only failed to take wickets but also to stop the free flow of the runs. They were bruised, battered and kneaded when needed by the opening pair of Capitals batsmen.

Capitals' batsmen were facilitated by a wayward bowling of the Giants as they conceded a whooping 18 extras in the first three overs, which took the pressure off the Giants from the beginning of the innings.

Liam Dawson took the only wicket of Banton to save Giants blushes from embarrassment of a ten-wicket defeat. Tom Abell and Du Plooy took the Capitals past the target without any more hiccups.

Defending champions Gulf Giants spurned the second chance to book their berth in the final of the tournament. After losing to the MIE in the first qualifier in Dubai on the previous day, they had another chance to go into the final with a victory over Capitals, the winners of the eliminator. But they were outplayed by the Capitals in all the departments of the game.

The Giants did not show any intentions of playing for a victory. They got off to a decent start as the opener James Vince and Usman Khan added 23 runs for the first wicket.

Jason Holder gave Capitals the first breakthrough by getting rid of Usman. The dismissal of Usman opened the floodgates for the Capitals bowlers. They ripped through the fragile middle-order of the Giants.

Giants kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals and failed to get the partnerships going. Usman scored 21 off 11 deliveries with the help of three boundaries and one six.

But his dismissal put the brakes on the scoring rate. Five runs later, Australian batsman Chris Lynn was clean bowled by Haider Ali. Giants lost their second wicket for 29 runs. Back-to-back wickets put Giants under pressure.

A charged-up Capitals bowling attack choked the flow of the runs completely. Jordan Cox was found short of his crease while attempting for a single which never existed.

Two balls later, Jamie Smith was sent back by Raza. Raza had Smith caught by Stones as the Giants lost two wickets on the same score and were reduced to 40/4 from 40/2.

They needed someone to play a big knock and share a big partnership to pull them out of the rut. But no Giants batsmen tried to adapt to the situation and they kept on throwing their wickets to reckless shots. Vince was struggling to connect the ball with the bat. The hopes of Giants were resting on the rescue man Shimron Hetmyer.

He has been instrumental in Giants’ run-up to the qualifiers. But to the dismay of the Giants, Hetmyer could not last long as he holed out to Raza off Kuggleijn.

The dismissal of Hetmyer all but ended the Giants’ hopes of staging a comeback. Vince was waging the battle single handedly.

He added 55 runs for the sixth wicket with Chris Jordan. But the duo consumed too many deliveries and did not try to spur the run rate. Stone got rid of Vince, who scored a painstakingly slow 58 off 53 balls at a snail’s pace.

Jordan, who smashed a blitzkrieg 31 against MIE in the previous match, remained unbeaten but he did not look even a pale shadow of himself.

He was playing as slow as his captain. He scored 30 off 29 balls, hitting just one six and two fours during his stay. Stone got rid of Vince, who hit only four boundaries and two sixes during his stint at the crease.

Jordan and Jamie Overton shared an unbeaten 21-run partnership as the Giants wrapped up their innings for 138/6 in their allotted 20 overs.