Zaman excels as Vipers tighten grip on top with MIE romp

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter

Fakhar Zaman smashed a 52-ball 67 to steer Desert Vipers to a five-wicket victory over MI Emirates (MIE) and hand them the third successive win from as many matches at the ILT20 in Dubai on Thursday.

Vipers restricted MIE to 159/6 and reached the target for the loss of five wickets with five balls to spare.

With the victory, they tighten the grip on the top spot, procuring six points from three matches.

A late charge by Zahoor Khan ignited some hopes of come-from-behind win for MIE with a late fightback as he got rid of Zaman and Sam Curran but the damage had been done. Shane Rutherford and Wanindu Hasaranga completed the formalities by taking Vipers past the target.

Vipers started the chase on a positive note. Their openers Zaman and Alex Hales set the tone with a blitzkrieg start.  They began the chase slowly as both the openers added only 14 runs in the first three overs.

In the 4th over, Hales changed the gears and collected 11 runs off Hosein with the help of two boundaries.

He did not stop there as he belted another 12 runs off the next over, bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi of Afghanistan.

Seeing his partner, Zaman also flexed his muscles and took 14 runs off the sixth over as Vipers raced to 51 for no loss in the first powerplay.

Hales hit two consecutive boundaries off the first two balls of the seventh over, bowled by Zahoor as Vipers collected 48 runs in four overs.

Waqar Salamkheil rattled the stumps of Hales to give MIE first breakthrough. After the dismissal of Hales, Vipers lost two more wickets in quick succession and were reduced to 71/3 from 61/0.

MIE bowlers choked the flow of runs as Zaman and Sam Curran knuckled down to build the innings. 

As the asking run rate started spiraling, Zaman started to cut loose. He hit Waqar for two successive sixes and took 16 runs off 14th over. He also brought up his fifty with a couple in the same over.

Zaman milked Mousley for another 16 runs in the next over. He titled the game in Vipers’ favour by taking 32 runs in two overs.

Zaman smashed Farooqi for another 13 runs to bring the equation down 29 needed off four overs from 74 off 42 balls.

Earlier, openers Kusal Perera and Muhammad Waseem gave MI Emirates (MIE) a solid start. They added 48 runs for the first wickets to give a strong platform for a big total.

Both the batsmen played sensibly and kept the Vipers bowlers at bay. They exploited the powerplay and added 48 runs in the first six overs.

Perera was the more brutal of the two as he did most of the scoring while Waseem played a perfect foil to him. Vipers bowlers were struggling to break the partnership as they did not look like a pale shadow of the same attack who destroyed Gulf Giants completely in the last match.

Vipers needed to break the dangerous-looking partnership to put a brake on the run rate.

It was Sri Lankan spinner Hasaranga, who gave Vipers the much-needed breakthrough by trapping Waseem in front of stumps.

He broke the partnership to bring some respite to the Vipers’ camp, Dismissal of Waseem opened the floodgates for Vipers bowlers as they ripped through the middle-order of the MIE.

MIE kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals after that and could not get the partnerships going.

After the dismissal of Waseem, Perera also could not last long as he was sent back to the pavilion by Lawerence, who got him caught by Rutherford as MIE lost their second wicket for 64.

Lockie Ferguson got rid of captain Nichlos Pooran to make it 86/3. Every time MIE batsmen tried to take a stride forward they were pegged back by two by a charged-up Vipers attack.

An agile Hasaranga dislodge the bails with a direct throw to find Tom Banton short of his ground off the next delivery. MIE lost two wickets in two balls.

Vipers bowlers fought back to dismantle the innings as MIE were reduced to 86/4 from 48/0. They lost four wickets and added just 38 runs in the next six over after the first powerplay.

Kieron Pollard and Dan Mousley shared a 37-run stand for the fifth wicket to take the score forward before the latter holed out to Lawrence off Payne as the fifth wicket went down.

They consumed too many deliveries as the duo took five overs to add 37 runs which affected the run rate. Pollard was waging the lone battle with a fiery knock of 36 off 23 deliveries.

He was well supported by Romario Shepherd smacked a quick-fire 8-ball 16 to spur the run rate as MIE ended their innings on 159/6 in 20 overs.