MI Emirates beat Gulf Giants by 45 runs to book berth in ILT20 final

Spinners Akeal Hosein and Vijayakanth Viyaskanth shared five wickets between them to lift MI Emirates (MIE) over Gulf Giants by 45 runs in the first qualifier of the ILT20 in Dubai on Wednesday.

With the victory, MIE booked their berth in the final while Giants still have one more chance as they will play Dubai Capitals in the second qualifier on Thursday. The winner of the second qualifier will play MIE in the final at the same venue on Saturday.

Defending 163/7, MIE had a brilliant start. Pooran’s gamble of bringing spinner Akeal Hosein paid off. The West Indian dislodged the bails of captain James Vince to dismiss him for a golden duck.

Losing the wicket of the captain for naught pushed the Giants on the back foot from the word go. Giants kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals and failed to get the partnerships going.

In the third over, Mohamad Rohid sent the wicket of Jordan Cox tumbling. Hosein struck again to send back Chris Lynn as the Giants lost their third wicket with just 24 runs on the board.

The Giants needed one or two big partnerships but their batsmen were getting out by playing reckless shots. Not a single batsman tried to adapt to the situation and build a partnership, which was the need of the hour.