Dubai,
\nGulf Giants showcased grit and determination to pull off a narrow five-run win over MI Emirates in the 26th match of the ILT20 season 2 at the Dubai International Stadium. The architects of Giants\u2019 win were their skipper James Vince who showed the way through his 59 runs off 41 balls with seven boundaries and a six, and wicketkeeper Jamie Smith\u2019s quick unbeaten 43 off 26 balls with four boundaries and two sixes. Together they helped Giants post a fighting total of 158 for 7. They then restricted MI Emirates to 153 for 7 in 20 overs.
\nEmirates\u2019 skipper Kieron Pollard lit up hopes of a victory through his fighting knock of 40 off 31 balls with three boundaries and a six after opener Kusal Perera had hit 34 runs off 25 balls with five boundaries.
\nChris Jordan and Jamie Overton bowled the death overs to perfection and ensured their team\u2019s win, which helped Giants move to the second slot in the points table. Unfortunately, Emirates\u2019 left-arm spinner from Afghanistan, Waqar Salamkheil\u2019s spell of 3 for 19 went in vain.
\nChasing the target, their aggressive opening pair of Kusal Perera and Muhammad Waseem scored only 22 runs in 3.1 overs when Waseem got out to a running catch by Jordan Cox near the deep mid-wicket boundary off Gerhard Erasmus for 7. Andre Fletcher slashed at Chris Jordan to be caught by Shimron Hetmyer at backward point for 11. Ambati Rayudu quickly departed lifting Aayan Khan into the hands of Chris Jordan at long-on for 1.
\nAt the half way mark, Perera who kept the scoreboard moving, fell, lifting Blessing Muzarabani to Vince at wide mid-off for 34. This was followed by a brilliant direct hit by Jamie Overton to run out Dan Mousely for 11. With half the side back in the dug-out, and 87 runs needed off 56 balls, Dominic Drakes and Aayan Khan bowled two tight overs giving away just four and five runs respectively.
\nThe match was interestingly poised at 60 runs needed off 30 balls. Pollard unleashed his big hits while Odean Smith played second fiddle. Almost all spectators now moved towards the edge of their seats with 38 runs needed off 18 balls. Overton struck to remove Odean Smith on 12 caught brilliantly by Cox at deep mid-wicket for 12. Then Jordan forced Pollard to scoop a catch to Muzarabani to squash Emirates\u2019 hopes of a victory.
\nPlayer of the Match , Chris Jordan said he will be focusing on Saturday\u2019s match and stated: \u201cIt was a good win for the boys. In that crunch moment at the death, execute and win or don’t and lose. They have amazing players and we got over the line tonight. I have been working on a couple of things with the bowling coach to operate at the top end of my speed. It’s working. We have to finish it on Saturday.\u201d
\nBrief scores:
\nGulf Giants bt MI Emirates by five runs.
\nGulf Giants 158 for 7 in 20 overs (James Vince 59, Jamie Smith 43n.o, Waqar Salamkheil 3 for 19)
\nMI Emirates 153 for 7 in 20 overs (Kusal Perera 34, Kieron Pollard 40, Jordan Thompson 26 n.o, Chris Jordan 2 for 21)
\nPlayer of the Match: Chris Jordan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dubai, Gulf Giants showcased grit and determination to pull off a narrow five-run win over MI Emirates in the 26th match of the ILT20 season 2 at the Dubai International Stadium. The architects of Giants\u2019 win were their skipper James Vince who showed the way through his 59 runs off 41 balls with seven boundaries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5328,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5326\/revisions\/5328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimesint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}