Photo-Collected
A month-long cricket festival in the United Arab Emirates came down on Sunday. Gulf Giants became the first IL T20 champions after defeating Desert Vipers by 7 wickets at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. James Vince won the trophy.
Gulf’s target was 147 runs. They lost two wickets in the power play. After losing 2 wickets for 26 runs, Chris Lynn and Gerhard Erasmus took the lead for the third wicket. Their pair added 73 runs.
In the 15th over, Wanindu Hasaranga gave some hope of dessert by getting Erasmus (30) caught by Tom Curran. Gulf needed 42 runs from 24 balls. However, Shimron Hetmyer spent time at the crease with Lynn in a cool head. The two picked up 18 runs in the 17th over and 16 runs in the 18th over to take the match in hand. Hetmyer played the winning shot in the 19th over to send the Gulf into a frenzy.
Lin left the field unbeaten on 72 runs off 50 balls. There were 9 fours and 1 six in his innings. Hetmyer was playing 25 runs off 13 balls with 5 fours. Gulf scored 149 runs for 3 wickets in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Carlos Brathwaite, Kais Ahmed and Colin de Grandhomme bowled brilliantly to restrict Desert to 146 runs. Brathwaite took three of the eight wickets, giving only 19 runs. This Windies star has also become the man of the match. Kais got two wickets.
Hasaranga scored a maximum of 55 off 27 balls for Dessert, hitting six fours and two sixes. The second highest 31 runs came with the bat of Sam Billings.
