Abu Dhabi
\nThe Desert Vipers stormed into the final of DP World ILT20 Season 4 with a commanding 45-run victory over MI Emirates in Qualifier 1 at Zayed Cricket Stadium. Anchored by Andries Gous\u2019 unbeaten century and debutant Usman Tariq\u2019s three-wicket haul, the Vipers booked their third final appearance in four seasons of the tournament.
\nChasing a target of 234, MI Emirates\u2019 hopes were dashed despite a fighting 63 off 27 balls by Tom Banton and 41 from Muhammad Waseem. Tariq\u2019s incisive bowling in the middle overs turned the match decisively in the Vipers\u2019 favor.
\nThe Vipers\u2019 innings was built on a destructive opening partnership of 157 runs between Gous (120* off 58) and Fakhar Zaman (69 off 50), the highest opening stand in DP World ILT20 history. Sam Curran contributed a blistering 38* off 12 balls to help the team post 233\/1 \u2013 the highest total of the season. Gous\u2019 century marked a historic milestone as he became the first player from an Associate Nation to score a hundred in the league, and also recorded the highest individual score in DP World ILT20 history.
\nMI Emirates began strongly, reaching 53\/1 in the powerplay with Waseem and Andre Fletcher rotating the strike, and Banton hitting a six and a four. However, the Vipers\u2019 bowling, led by Tariq, David Payne, and Naseem Shah, triggered a collapse in the middle overs. Key wickets of Banton, Krishnamurthi, Pollard, and Mousley shifted momentum firmly to the Vipers. Romario Shepherd\u2019s late counterattack (39* off 23) was insufficient as MI Emirates were restricted to 188\/7.
\nSpeaking after the match, Player of the Match Andries Gous said, \u201cIt was a really special moment. Fakhar batted superbly and made my job easier. After the powerplay, we were thinking 190\u2013200, but Sam\u2019s innings pushed us to 230-plus.\u201d
\nMI Emirates captain Kieron Pollard reflected, \u201cChasing 233 was always going to be tough. We gave away a few extra runs, but one loss isn\u2019t the end\u2014we still have another chance in the Eliminator.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Abu Dhabi The Desert Vipers stormed into the final of DP World ILT20 Season 4 with a commanding 45-run victory over MI Emirates in Qualifier 1 at Zayed Cricket Stadium. Anchored by Andries Gous\u2019 unbeaten century and debutant Usman Tariq\u2019s three-wicket haul, the Vipers booked their third final appearance in four seasons of the tournament. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91690,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663\/revisions\/91690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}