The International League T20 (ILT20) season ended with a nerve-jangling final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday as the Dubai Capitals (DC) were crowned the champions after a stroke of luck followed game-changing knocks from Rovman Powell and Sikandar Raza, who delivered a four-wicket win over Desert Vipers (DV) in a thrilling finish.
Sikandar Raza’s unbeaten knock of 34 runs in just 12 balls stole the show in the last two overs of DC’s chase, which saw remarkable hitting from the all-rounder to take his team past DV’s 189/5, after Powell set up the chase with his innings of 63 off 38 balls.
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The match kept swinging like a pendulum during the run-chase.
After DC lost David Warner (4), Gulbadin Naib (5) and Sam Billings (6) early, opener Shai Hope played the anchor to score 43 off 39 balls, while Rovman Powell played the role of the aggressor after getting a reprieve when he had scored only 2.
While it looked like wickeetkeeper Azam Khan had cleanly stumped Powell off the bowling of spinner Nathan Sowter, replays showed his gloves slightly in front of the stumps when he collected the ball to remove the bails. It was, thus, ruled a no-ball and Powell went on to add 61 runs more.
It turned out to be the game-changing moment of the match.
Powell then kept rubbing salt into the Vipers’ wounds, adding 80 runs with Hope and then a brisk 41 runs with Dasun Shanaka (21 off 10), before getting dismissed off the last ball of the 18th over bowled by Sowter.
The match turned into a Raza show for the next eight deliveries, which saw 4 fours and a six coming off his bat to deliver the title-clinching win.
David Payne (2 for 28) and Mohammad Amir (2 for 35) took two wickets each for the Vipers.
Earlier, the Vipers put up an impressive 189/5 on the board because of the efforts of Max Holden, who made 76 off 51 balls, and captain Sam Curran, who remained not out on 62 from 33 balls.
After being put in to bat, the Vipers lost openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (5) and Alex Hales (5) to pacer Obed McCoy (2 for 44). But Holden kept attacking while adding 41 runs with Dan Lawrence (10) and 47 runs with Curran, before the Vipers’ top-scorer was dismissed by Raza (1 for 42) in the 16th over.
Curran and Azam Khan (27 off 13 balls) then smashed 67 runs in the last 4.5 overs to take the total past the 180-run mark. But it didn’t prove enough in the end.
