Gulf Giants overcome Desert Vipers to claim inaugural DP World International T20 title

DUBAI: International League T20 saw the Gulf Giants emerge victorious over the Desert Vipers by seven wickets in Dubai.

The top two teams were meeting each other for the fourth time in the tournament, the Giants having won two of the previous three meetings against their final opponent.

At Dubai International Stadium on Sunday night, the Giants won the toss and chose to field in front of a near capacity crowd.

Eight runs came from the first over. Alex Hales, the Viper’s opener, had set the early part of the tournament alight in scoring 438 runs in his first five innings. His last six innings had yielded only 50. Carlos Brathwaite had bowled him in their previous encounter. Facing the first ball of Brathwaite’s first over, the second of the innings, Hales pushed to deep mid-off to be caught for a single.

Further disaster struck the Viper’s when Mustafa set off for a run, was over half-way to the other end when the non-striker, Adam Lyth, sent him back, Mustafa failing to make his ground by some distance. Lyth, in trying to make up for this, turned aggressive but in hooking De Grandhomme was caught at fine leg, the score 25 for 3 at the end of the fifth over, an unusual one in T20 cricket, since it was a wicket maiden.

Billings and Munro sought to rebuild for the innings, no boundary being scored until one from Billings in the eighth over. In the ninth over, Munro pushed forward at Jordan, who dived spectacularly to catch the ball one-handed, reducing the Vipers to 48 for four after nine overs. 

New batsman, Wanindu Hasaranga, was immediately on the offensive and, with Billings, 40 runs were added in the next three overs, a further 27 in the next two. Brathwaite returned to try and stem the flow, which he did,