Pepper smashes fifty to spice up Abu Dhabi Knight Riders' victory over Gulf Giants

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter

Riding on Michael Pepper’s quick-fire fifty Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ADKR) defeated Gulf Giants by 37 runs in the second match of the double-header of the ILT20 in Dubai on Sunday.

Despite a four-wicket haul by Aayna Afzal Khan of the UAE, Giants failed to stop ADKR from notching up the second win from their fourth match of the tournament.

With the win, ADKR moved to the third spot in the table with four points. After posting 176/9, ADKR restricted Giants to 139/8.

The match was predominantly dominated by the UAE players, who left their indelible impression on the game. If Aayan took four wickets, Ibrar also picked up two.

Chasing, Giants got off to a faltering start as they lost their first wicket with just three runs on the board.

Opener Adam Lyth was caught by Mayers off Willey. After that, they kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals and could never recover from there.

UAE bowler Ibrar, who made his debut, got rid of James Vince for his first scalp of the ILT20 career and gave a second jolt to the Giants. Ibrar struck again to fox Cox as Giants lost their third wicket. 

Giants needed a big partnership to remain in the hunt but Sunil Narine added to their woes as he dislodged the bails of Ibrahim Zadran to make it 59/4.

The responsibility of taking the Giants through came on the shoulders of Gerhard Erasmus and Shimron Hetmyer. They kept the chase alive for a brief time with a 37-run stand for the fifth wicket before being dismissed on the same score by Holder and Ali Khan respectively.

After the departure of Hetmyer and Erasmus, Aayan and Adair added 34 runs but consumed too many deliveries which brought the equation down to 50 needed off 12 balls. The Giants' innings was wrapped up for 139/8.

Earlier, Kyle Mayers and Andries Gous gave ADKR a strong start as they added 39 runs in just four overs.

Both the batsmen made their intentions clear as they started cutting loose from the beginning. They gave a good platform for a big total with brisk opening.

Giants needed to break the partnership to stop ADKR from posting a big total, which would be improbable to chase. But all their efforts to put a brake on the run rate was going in vain.

Mills rattled the stumps of Mayers to give Giants the first breakthrough. Soon after the dismissal of Mayers, Gous was sent back to the pavilion by Zadran.

After taking two wickets within a span of six runs, Giants’ bowlers had a chance to choke the flow of runs. With two new batsmen on the crease, Giants bowlers started mounting the pressure.

Joe Clarke and Michael Pepper shared a 52-run stand for the third wicket not only to soak the pressure but also take ADKR to a strong position.

UAE star all-rounder Aayan broke the dangerous-looking partnership by getting rid of Clarke.

The dismissal of Clarke opened the floodgates for Aayan. He ripped through the middle-order of ADKR.

Aayan uprooted the stumps of Clarke to make it 99/3. After the departure of Clarke, ADKR lost wickets in bulks. None of their batsmen could withstand the onslaught of Aayan.

The wily spinner had Alishan Sharafu caught by Adair before Erasmus took a stunner on the boundary line to dismiss Andre Russell off Aayan.

After hitting a six, Russell again tried to go over the top. He had almost cleared it but Erasmus got hold of the ball, leaning backwards at the rope.

He threw the ball to Zadran before falling on the other side of the boundary line as Aayan picked up his third wicket.

To complete his four-wicket haul, Aayan clean bowled captain Sunil Narine as ADKR were reduced to 131/6 from 99/3. Pepper was waging the lone battle on the other end.

He brought up his fifty with a single in 31 balls. He hit one more six before falling prey to Adair, who got his first wicket of the match. Pepper’s inning was peppered with six fours and two sixes.

Jason played a quick-fire cameo of 9-ball 16. He was well supported by David Willey, who also scored a useful 11 as the duo added 20 runs for the eighth wicket to help ADKR post fighting total of 176/9.