Dubai:
Ben Dunk’s fighting 59 and Rovman Powell’s unbeaten 40 along with Jason Holder’s cameo of 23 helped Dubai Capitals register a thrilling four-wicket win off the last ball of the match against Desert Vipers in the 17th match of the DP World ILT20 season 2 at the Dubai International Stadium.
Powell and Holder put an unbeaten 38 runs in 26 balls for the seventh wicket to snatch the match away from the grip of the Vipers. Powell’s 40 off 32 balls had three boundaries and a six.
Chasing a target of 170 was an edge of the seat affair. Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell for just four runs lifting Shaheen Afridi to Maheesh Pathirana, who took a brilliant run-and-dive catch at mid-off. Opener and skipper David Warner failed again, getting out to Afridi caught by his counterpart Colin Munro at extra cover for 4. The star batsman’s scores in this tournament prior to this match have been 1, 20, 0, 21 and 16.
Wanindu Hasaranga, who was introduced for the seventh over, had Sam Billings caught and bowled for 6. Dunk reached his half century in 23 balls with six boundares and two sixes to light up his team’s hopes.
Rovman Powell and Sikandar Raza refused to bow to the pressure and put on a 41 run partnership in 27 balls for the fifth wicket when Raza top edged Amir to Pathirana for 22 when 49 more runs were needed. Vipers went for the kill with Hasaranga removing Rahul Chopra for 4. Powell along with Jason Holder made it 19 to win off the last 12 balls and they took 15 off Afridi’s penultimate over. Pathirana bowled a brillliant last over with only four runs to defend but Capitals won off the last ball.
Brief scores:
Dubai Capitals bt Desert Vipers by 4 wkts.
Desert Vipers 169 for 6 in 20 overs (Rohan Mustafa 50, Alex Hales 49, Adam Hose 35n.o);
Dubai Capitals 170 for 6 in 20 overs (Ben Dunk 59, Sikandar Raza 22, Rovman Powell 40n.o, Jason Holder 23n.o, Shaheen Afridi 2 for 47, Wanindu Hasaranaga 2 for 25)
Player of the Match: Ben Dunk
