Desert Vipers pull off a two-wicket win over MI Emirates through a last ball thriller

Desert Vipers produced a nail-biting two-wicket win off the last ball after a fierce battle against MI Emirates in Tuesday’s ILT20 match at the Dubai International Stadium.

MI Emirates was restricted to 149 for 9 in 20 overs, but they fought back to reduce Vipers to 62 for 5. However, the fate of the match swung like a pendulum until the last over.

Vipers’ Sherfane Rutherford lit up hopes of a victory through a quick 35 runs after taking 17 runs off Boult’s 17th over with a six and two boundaries. Then Bravo had Rutherford caught by Kusal Perera at mid-on off a slower delivery.

Shaheen Afridi (17n.o) and Luke Wood (6n.o) took up the challenge of scoring 17 runs from the last 12 balls and ten off the last over from Trent Boult to win off the last ball.

They ran for the three runs needed to win off the last ball.

Winning captain Colin Munro said after the match: “It feels great to get a win and those two points. There were a couple of rash shots, but I can’t fault the intent; but we gotta be a little bit smarter. It’s always nice to win those tight games.”

Player of the Match Mohammad Amir said: “It was an interesting game, and I am happy I did something for the team as I thought Rutherford would be the player of the match. We bowled in partnership, and it is important to communicate with each other. Also, Shaheen and me are sharing the experience, and that helps.”

Losing skipper Nicholas Pooran remarked: “We felt we were 10-15 runs short, but in all honesty we felt we could make it an interesting game if we could get a couple of early wickets. It is a tough one to swallow though. We’ll definitely rebuild. It just wasn’t enough today.”