Abu Dhabi: Dubai Capitals defeated Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the Eliminator of the DP World ILT20 season 2 at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
Timely knocks from opener Tom Banton (44 off 31 balls), Tom Abell (41 off 29 balls), skipper Sam Billings (46 not out off 26 balls) and Sikandar Raza (40 off 19 balls) gave Dubai Capitals a winning total of 188 for 5.
Knight Riders failed to rise to the challenge and were bowled out for a paltry 103 runs through splendid bowling displays from Scott Kuggeleijn (4 for 17) backed by Zahir Khan (2 for 25) and Sikandar Raza (2 for 27). Capitals thus booked their slot for the Qualifier 2.
Sikandar Raza emerged the hero once again for Capitals to bag the Player of the Match award. He said: “Any time a role is given to me, I will try to give my best. As long as I am prepared, I am happy to do it. We thought that if we get 160, they have to bat really well to win. Once we got 188, all we had to do was to get wickets in the powerplay. And once we did that, we were always in the game.”
Good shape
A happy Capitals’ skipper Sam Billings, said: “We have played a couple of games here. But getting yourself in is always tricky. If you can get past 10-15, you can get going. We thought 160+ would be a very good score, and we were very happy with that score. They (Kuggeleijn and Stone) complement each other brilliantly. I am really happy with the way we have gone in the last three games. We are in a very good shape.”
Sunil Narine, captain of Knight Riders, said: “In this tournament, powerplay is the key. Losing three wickets, we were always on the back foot. Reaching the second round was our first goal. We had a decent tournament. There were some positives. A lovely team bonding.”
Brief scores: Dubai Capitals bt Abu Dhabi Knight Riders by 85 runs. Dubai Capitals 188 for 5 in 20 overs (Tom Banton 44, Tom Abell 41, Sam Billings 46n.o, Sikandar Raza 40, Sabir Ali 2 for 35) Abu Dhabi Knight Riders 103 in 16.5 overs (Sam Hain 29, David Willey 36, Scott Kuggeleijn 4 for 17, Zahir Khan 2 for 25, Sikandar Raza 2 for 27). Player of the Match: Sikandar Raza
