Gulbadin stars as Capitals stop Vipers' juggernaut with six-wicket romp

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter

Gulbadin Naib smacked a whirlwind fifty as Dubai Capitals ended the Desert Vipers’ four-game winning streak at the ILT20 match in Dubai on Monday.

After restricting Vipers to 139, Capitals achieved the target for the loss of five wickets with 14 balls to spare. Capitals notched up the second win of the season and handed Vipers their first loss.

With the victory, Capitals climbed out of bottom to move to the fourth spot in the six-team tournament with four points from five matches.

Gulbadin remained unbeaten on 78 off 51 deliveries and smashed three hits to the rope and five over it during his stint at the crease.

Defending a small total, Ferguson gave the Vipers a strong start as he sent back Ben Dunk and Khalid Shah in the same over to push the Capitals on the backfoot from the beginning.

Dunk was taken by Hasaranga before Ferguson dismantled the bails of Shah to send back two top batsmen with just 15 runs on the board.

Shai Hope was found short of his ground while trying to steal a cheeky double -- off a misfield -- that never existed to add to Capitals problems. With three batsmen back in the pavilion, Capitals needed someone to play a sheet-anchor role and re-build the innings.

Afghanistan’s batsman Gulabdin, who got a reprieve when he was dropped on a personal score of two by Naseer, made the best use of the chance.

He mended the innings with a stroke-filled knock and shared a  66-run stand with Zimbabwe’s Sikander Raza for the fourth wicket.

Gulabdin flexed his muscles in the seventh over as he collected 20 runs off Nathan Sowter with the help of three sixes to shoo away the pressure. He raced to his fifty with a single in just 30 deliveries.

Both the batsmen played sensibly without taking any risk to take the match as deep as possible. They brought the equation down to 33 needed off 36 before Mohammad Amir broke the partnership by getting rid of Raza to ignite the hopes.

Vipers started fancying their chances of a come-from-behind win. But Gulbadin and Najibullah Zadran shared an unbeaten partnership of 34 runs to take Capitals past the target.

Earlier, Alex Hales and Dan Lawerence added 59 runs for the second wicket to lay the foundation for a fighting total as they took the score to 73/2 after Fakhar Zaman was dismissed cheaply with just 15 runs on the board.

Chameera rattled the stumps of Fakhar after the Vipers opener had hit a six and a four in his 10-ball 14. But after the departure of Fakhar, Hales and Lawerence took the responsibility on their shoulders to take the innings forward.

They knuckled down to build the innings. Both the batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking with singles and doubles, hitting occasional boundaries to maintain the run rate.

They kept the Capitals bowlers at bay and were cruising along nicely. Capitals desperately needed a wicket to break the dangerous-looking partnership to stop Vipers from posting a huge total.

Haider Ali gave Capitals much-needed breakthrough to bring respite to their camp. Dismissal of Hales opened the floodgates for Capitals’ bowlers.

They ripped through the middle-order of Vipers. No batsmen could survive the onslaught of a charged-up Capitals’ bowling attack.

The middle-order of Vipers failed to capitalise on the Hales-Lawerence partnership and crumbled like a pack of cards. Soon after the departure of Hales, Lawerence was caught by Chameera off Naib as Vipers lost two wickets in quick succession and were pushed on the backfoot again.

Sikander Raza got rid of Sam Curran as Vipers lost three wickets within a span of seven runs to be reduced to 80/4 from 73/1.

A resurgent Capitals bowlers had turned the table on Vipers in a matter of two overs. Vipers were reeling and needed someone to pull them out of the rut. Azam Khan’s poor show with the bat continued as he was clean bowled by Zahir Khan after scoring 10 runs to add to the Vipers’ woes.

Sherfane Rutherford was waging a lone battle. But he was not getting any support from the other end. Wanindu Hasaranga played a quick-fire cameo of 8-ball 13 before becoming the second victim of Zaheer.

Zaheer did not stop here as he trapped Tanish Suri in front of stumps to leave the Vipers in tatters as they lost two wickets on the same score.

The problems of Vipers were compounding as their batsmen struggled to convert their starts into big scores. Five of their batsmen could not breach the two-digit mark.

Rutherford tried to accelerate the run rate as he hit three sixes and a boundary but lacked the support from the other end.

He holed out to Khalid Shah off Chameera after McCoy had sent back Naseer Ali.

Chameera finished his three-wicket haul by picking up the wicket of Ferguson as Vipers’ innings was folded for 139 in 19.5 overs.