The Abu Dhabi Knight Riders kept their cool and clinched a hard-fought four-wicket victory over the Gulf Giants at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Thursday. Openers Alex Hales (46 off 39) and Phil Salt (35 off 24) dispatched the 167-run chase to all corners, chased down with four balls to spare as they climbed two spots up the points table from sixth position, going past Nottinghamshire into fourth place.
Requiring 166 to win, Salt and Hales combined to put on 61 off 44 balls. They were assisted by some late blows from Sherfane Rutherford (30 off 22) and Andre Russell (21* off 13), who nullified Tabraiz Shamsi’s three for 23.
With the ball, Piyush Chawla claimed four wickets for 27 runs as Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s 72 from 45 balls, hitting four fours and five sixes in his innings for the Giants, ended up being wasted.
Man of the match Piyush Chawla was naturally pleased with the effort.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that cricket would bring me this far, it was all just fun and games when I began,” said the 36-year old spinner.
“Googly has always been natural to me and at the moment I am focusing more on my leg-break, trying new angles and working on side-on action so that I can also turn it extra which will be an advantage — it puts doubt in batsman’s mind.
Gulf Giants captain James Vince said: ’’At one point we were looking at 190 or 200, so in the end we were probably 20-30 runs short. With that small cushion removed, the pressure on them in chasing down India’s total early on was negligible and they kept a lid on the required rate. I was happy with the way we came back after being under the pump in our first few overs – a side can lose momentum when a team starts well up-front in the powerplay but Tabraiz Shamsi’s wickets brought us into the game and also made us believe things could happen.”
Brief scores
Abu Dhabi Knight Riders beat Gulf Giants by four wickets
Gulf Giants 165/7 in 20 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 72, Pathum Nissanka 17, Piyush Chawla 4 for 27, Ajay Kumar 1 for 30)
Abu Dhabi Knight Riders 167/6 in 19.2 overs (Alex Hales 46, Phil Salt 35, Andre Russell 21 not out, Tabraiz Shamsi 3 for 23, Fred Klaassen 2 for 37)
Player of the match: Piyush Chawla