Kieron Pollard’s half-century was not sufficient to prevent the MI Emirates from going down to a four-wicket loss to Gulf Giants in Qualifier 2 in Sharjah on Friday.

With the win Gulf Giants booked a place in Sunday’s 2023 ILT20 final where they will face Desert Vipers.

Coming off their emphatic eight-wicket victory over Dubai Capitals on Thursday MI Emirates looked a jaded team, scoring 167-5 from their 20 overs.

Pollard scored an unbeaten 57 from 35 balls while Nicholas Pooran contributed with 29 and opener Mohammad Waseem, 31.

Chris Jordan took 2-25 and David Wiese 2-31.

In reply, James Vince played a gem of an innings, scoring unbeaten 83 including the winning runs, a four off Fazalhaq Farooqi as Gulf Giants scored 168-6 from 18.1 overs.

Farooqi took 2-27 and Rashid Khan, 2-40 in the losing cause. Dwayne Bravo took 1-27.

Sherfane Rutherford’s heroics played a significant role in helping the Desert Vipers make their first-ever appearance in an ILT20 final on Wednesday.

After suffering a painful hamstring injury that forced him to leave the field, the Guyanese batsman returned to rescue his team smashing 37 off 19 deliveries including three consecutive sixes off David Wiese.

His heroics would help propel Desert Vipers to 178-7, which proved to be enough as the Vipers dismissed Gulf Giants for 159 in 19.4 overs.

During an interview on the Vipers Voices Podcast afterwards, Rutherford said he knew it was going to be his last game but he wanted to make an impact on the game and help his team.

“It was my idea (to go back out and bat). When I went in (after being injured), I asked my physio if I could go back and bat. He said no and that it was better I just relax,” he explained.

“I told him I could do it, and then he said he was going to discuss it with the coach. At that time Tom Moody was passing by and he said, ‘If he (Rutherford) wants to bat, let us trust him.’ I also knew it was going to be my last game (in the tournament) and I wanted to give it my all, and hopefully I could make an impact for the team.”

After arriving at the crease, he revealed his intentions to Tom Curran, his partner with whom he put on 52 runs which ultimately changed the direction of the match.

 “I knew I could not run, so I said (to Tom Curran) that I was going to try and get boundaries. So, I think that’s where we won the game,” Rutherford said.

The Desert Vipers are through to the first-ever final of the DP World ILT20 after a sensational 19-run win over the Gulf Giants at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday. This was the Vipers’ first victory over the Giants in the tournament, having lost their two previous contests. 

Batting first Desert Vipers made 178-7 from their 20 overs before restricting the Gulf Giants to 159 all out off 19.4 overs.

Put into bat, the Vipers had a shaky start, losing their first three wickets for just 33 runs but they recovered to post a winning score in large part due to the heroics of Sherfane Rutherford, who returned to the field despite a painful hamstring injury to score 37 off 19 deliveries including three consecutive sixes off David Wiese.

Tom Curran shared a 52-run partnership with Rutherford, contributing a valuable 29 runs, and he took four wickets as well, earning him the Player of the Match award.

“Rutherford is in a bit of pain with his injury. Not sure how long he will be out for with his injury. I didn’t expect him to come back on the field like he did to be honest. But he showed great courage, and I think it is the environment we have created within the Desert Vipers, that (makes) people want to go out and perform for the team,” said team captain Colin Munro.

“The courage he showed to come out and bat on one leg was the turning point of the game. He hit the ball beautifully and changed the whole momentum of the game and put us in the driver’s seat. That was a great knock from him.”

 Munro also praised Curran and Wanindu Hasaranga for the impact they had on the match.

 “I think Tom Curran is a genuine all-rounder now. He used to be a bowler who could also bat at around number eight, but since coming into the Vipers he has been given the chance to go in at six and seven and show what he can do,” Munro said.

 “Hasaranga is a world class player, and he is up (the top) in the ICC T20 rankings, and he was in the (ICC T20 Men’s) Team of the Year. He was outstanding and to get those three wickets, (they) really put inroads in (the Gulf Giants batting line-up).

“They (Gulf Giants) got off to a really good start in the power play through James Vince and Chris Lynn.  I think the way Hasaranga came out and got a wicket in his first over put them under pressure, while also getting the run rate going up. This allowed our bowlers to settle in and use what the pitch had to offer.

 “We came here to qualify, number one, and once we got into the finals, it was about putting our best foot forward to make it to the final. Now we are there, and our next goal is to lift that trophy.”

Naturally, Head Coach James Foster was delighted with the performance and the outcome.

 “I am really chuffed for the whole team. I think they fought really hard throughout this campaign. I thought we had to show a lot of fight today, and a lot of character,” he said while speaking on the Vipers Voices podcast.

“After a positive start, we were three down for not too many (runs), and I thought Ronnie (Rohan Mustafa) got us off to a flyer but the brakes were put on us, and then we had to absorb a lot of pressure.

 “The partnership between Sam Billings and Wanindu Hasaranga was huge in the context of the game. They had to rebuild, but also had to show intent and keep that scoreboard ticking.”

He, too, was full of praise for Rutherford.

 “When Rutherford came out and then pulled up with that hamstring injury, you thought the worst. But the fact that he was happy to go back out there (was great for the team). It was his idea and his thought, and he was really keen,” he said.

“So at the drop of the next wicket he went out there and that was some unbelievable ball-striking, bearing in mind he was on one leg. To hit the ball in the areas that he did, with the power that he possesses, which we have seen throughout this campaign, came to fruition tonight.

 “What a platform the ILT20 is to showcase what Rutherford can do. I am really pleased for him, he is such a top man, such a nice guy and so humble. In the same breath (I am) devastated for him, about picking up an injury.”

An aggressive half-century from Shimron Hetmyer helped propel Gulf Giants to a five-wicket victory over Desert Vipers in the ILT20 league in Dubai on Sunday.

Hetmyer scored 70 from just 35 balls as Gulf Giants scored 196-5 to win with three balls to spare. Despite the impressive knock from the Guyanese batsman, he did not do it alone as Chris Lynn was equally impressive scoring 71 from 42 balls in the winning effort.

Lynn and Hetmyer’s partnership of 117 from 56 balls helped get Gulf Giants’ chase back on track after they had lost Tom Banton, James Vince and Rehan Amhed for three, four and one, respectively, with only 30 runs on the board.

Hetmyer was eventually dismissed in the 14^th over having hit five sixes and five fours. Lynn fell in the 17^th leaving the dependable David Weise and Liam Dawson to take the Giants to victory.

Weise was unbeaten on 22 from 19 balls while Dawson was not out on 16 from just nine balls in the end.

Sheldon Cottrell was the best of the Vipers’ bowlers with 2-24 from his four overs.

Earlier, Vipers owed their challenging total to Alex Hales 99 from just 57 balls. He hit 10 fours and five sixes in his knock and got support from Colin Munro, who scored 39 from 23 balls and Sherfane Rutherford, who contributed 27 from 15 balls as Desert Vipers scored 195-4 from their allotment.

It proved to be a tough target but one that Hetmyer and Lynn were able to achieve.

A solid all-round effort from captain Stafanie Taylor propelled Tornadoes Women to a 13-run victory over Warriors Women in the FairBreak Invitational T20 Tournament at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the UAE on Friday.

Dutchwoman Steere Kalis (58), New Zealand captain Sophie Devine (48) and Taylor (31 not out) combined to help Tornadoes post 152-3 off their 20 overs after Warriors won the toss and elected to field first.

West Indies vice-captain Hayley Matthews was the pick of the Warriors bowlers with 2-33 from her four overs.

The Warriors chase was very top-heavy as openers Georgia Redmayne from Australia (48), Matthews (21) and captain Sindhu Sriharsha from the USA (35) were the only significant contributors as they eventually stumbled to 139-6 off their 20 overs, losing by 13 runs.

Malaysian captain Winifried Durasingam bowled beautifully to pick up a crucial 3-24 from her four overs while captain Taylor chipped in with 1-18 off three overs.

Deandra Dottin’s 80 not out proved to be insufficient to prevent her Barmy Army Women from going down by eight wickets to Falcons Women in the FairBreak Invitational T20 Tournament, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, in the UAE on Friday.

The hard-hitting West Indian’s innings came off just 59 balls and included 12 fours and two sixes.

Dottin, alongside England captain Heather Knight (20) and South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt (17), helped Barmy Army Women get to 152-3 off their 20 overs.

The Falcons then needed only 17.3 overs to get to 156-2 thanks to 76 not out off 49 balls from captain Danni Wyatt.

Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu and West Indian Britney Cooper were the next best scorers with 41 and 32 not out, respectively.

The 2022 FairBreak Invitational is taking place in Dubai and is an ICC-sanctioned tournament. The inaugural edition of the competition organized by Cricket Hong Kong will comprise six teams that will have players from across the globe.

The first match was played on May 4 while May 9 and May 13 will be rest days. Both the semi-finals are slated to be played on May 14, while the third-place playoff and the final will be held on May 15.

There will be six teams that will be taking part in the inaugural season and there will be ninety players from 36 countries who will feature in the competition. Among these, 40 come from ICC full members and 50 from associate members.

Stafanie Taylor, Hayley Matthews, Deandra Dottin, Britney Cooper, Shemaine Campbelle, and Shamilia Connell are the West Indians participating.

Former West Indies captain has been included in the West Indies T20 World Cup squad as a replacement for injured left-arm fast bowler Obed McCoy.

West Indies head coach has admitted that the game and situational awareness of the team was not at its best against England on Saturday but said the team will continue to be aggressive in its approach when they take on South Africa on Tuesday.

West Indies head coach Phil Simmons has defended the decision to exclude Roston Chase from the team’s opening match in the ICC T20 World Cup against England on Saturday and insists that they did not misread the pitch before selecting the team.

In a rematch of the 2016 T20 World Cup final when the West Indies emerged victoriously, England bowled the defending champions out for 55 with Chris Gayle top-scoring with 13. England’s spinners took six of the 10 wickets to fall before their batters achieved the winning target in 8.2 overs.

The West Indies were unable to build partnerships and were missing the role of an anchor that Chase demonstrated while scoring an unbeaten 54 in the West Indies’ final warm-up match against Afghanistan. Playing anchor was something demonstrated he could do well during the 2021 Hero CPL season when he was the top scorer with 446 runs at an incredible average of 49.55.

When England batted, Akeal Hosein, the only spinner selected, was the best of the bowlers with 2-24.

Chase, a more than useful bowler, would have also given the West Indies another bowling option as a spinner in the match where spinners took eight of the 14 wickets to fall, the best of them being England’s Adil Rashid, who boasted ridiculous figures of four wickets for two runs from his four overs.

Still, Coach Simmons speaking with the media on Sunday, insisted that the team they selected was the right one for the conditions.

“I don’t think we misread the pitch. Yes, the spinners got some wickets but as you go along you have seen that the pitch was a good pitch,” he said during a media conference from Dubai on Sunday where the West Indies are preparing to face South Africa on Tuesday.

“You have to try and make the most of the first six or seven overs and then you have to fight until you get to the latter part. I think when you assess the pitch, you assess the squad we thought that the 11 that went into the game was the right squad.

“Yes, Chase got some runs in the game before but when were at the ground we assessed and we thought it was the right combination.”

West Indies captain Kieron Pollard believes Fabian Allen missing out on the T20 World Cup because of injury is a major blow to the West Indies ahead of the campaign to defend the title they won in 2016.

Andre Russell could be a game-time decision for the West Indies as they get ready for their opening match in the ICC T20 World Cup in Dubai on Saturday.

The Cricket West Indies (CWI) Selection Panel today announced that left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein has been named as the replacement for spinner all-rounder Fabian Allen in the 15-member squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Allen was ruled out of the ICC tournament due to an unhealed right ankle injury which he sustained during the recently concluded IPL. 

The change to the West Indies squad has been approved by the ICC tournament’s technical committee.

Hosein, who was originally named as a travelling reserve, now joins the official squad. Another exciting young left-arm spinner, Gudakesh Motie, has been called up by the West Indies selectors as a reserve player. Motie is due to fly to the UAE where he will be able to join the West Indies squad as a reserve, once he has completed the six days of mandatory quarantine with the required negative COVID-19 test results.

“I know Fabian was really looking forward to playing in this World Cup, so it is very disappointing that he is forced to miss out. His all-round capabilities will be missed by the team. I would like to wish him a full and speedy recovery and look forward to him being available for squad selection in the near future,” said CWI Chief Selector Roger Harper.

“I take the opportunity to congratulate Akeal on being drafted into the 15-member squad and look forward to him continuing the good form he displayed throughout the year. I also congratulate Gudakesh Motie whose performances in CG Insurance Super50 and CPL have resulted in him being added to the reserves as spin bowling cover.”

CWI selectors have also requested that Dominic Drakes and Odean Smith stay back in the UAE following their recent IPL engagements. The two young fast bowlers will train with the West Indies squad as net bowlers during the squad’s preparations this week.

West Indies are two-time and defending ICC T20 World Cup Champions and will be going in search of an unprecedented third title and back-to-back T20 World Cup Tournament wins. West Indies first match is on Saturday, October 23 against England at the Dubai International Stadium in the first of West Indies’ Group games in the Super12 stage of the tournament.

FULL SQUAD: Kieron Pollard (Captain), Nicholas Pooran (Vice-Captain), Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Oshane Thomas and Hayden Walsh Jr.

Travelling Reserves: Darren Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Jason Holder and Gudakesh Motie.

Babar Azam’s half-century for Pakistan helped condemn West Indies to a seven-wicket loss in their first warm-up match in Dubai on Monday.

Marlon Samuels was an instrumental player in the West Indies ICC T20 World Cup triumphs in 2012 and 2016. In 2012, Samuels scored a 56-ball 78 that proved to be the foundation for the West Indies 137 for 6 that was good enough to defeat Sri Lanka by 36 runs.

Then in 2016, the outspoken Jamaican scored an unbeaten 85 from 66 balls to help the West Indies pull off a remarkable victory chasing down England’s 155 for 9.

Carlos Brathwaite stole the show at the end with his unbeaten 34 from just 10 balls and which included four consecutive sixes in the final over bowled by Ben Stokes, but it was Samuels who kept the West Indies in the game after they had stumbled to 107-6 and needing 49 from just 27 balls.

Samuels has since retired, but the West Indies might already have a replacement in their camp in the form of Roston Chase.

The lanky Barbadian believes he is the man to take over that very important role as the West Indies go in search of a third consecutive title.

“I see myself playing a similar role,” Chase said while speaking with the media from the West Indies training base in Dubai on Thursday.

“I played for the St Lucia franchise for the past two years where I come in mostly after the Powerplay and knock it around and pick up the ones and twos and the occasional boundary when the ball is in my area to score so it’s an easy role for me.

“I like that role and with the power-hitting guys that we have, my role is just to give them the strike and let them do their thing but if the ball is in my area I will put it away.”

Chase demonstrated as much during the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League in the summer when, after a slow start to the season, he was among the league's leading run-scorers with 446 runs. Those runs came at a remarkable average of 49.55 and strike rate of 144.33.

That success, he revealed, came as the result of an adjustment he made to the way he was playing.

“Early on in this year’s CPL, the pitches were a bit difficult. They had a lot of grass but the grass was kind of spongy. It wasn’t like even grass for the ball to slide on. The ball was bouncing a bit; that was a bit hard so I just thought that after the first couple of matches I was trying to go at the ball a bit too hard. It was a wicket that you needed time to get in first and then it became easier,” he explained.

“So that is what I told myself after the first couple of games, just give myself a bit of time at the crease and then let my stroke play take over from there.”

He might have to make another adjustment for the pitch in Dubai where the West Indies will open the defence of their title on October 23 against England.

“We’ve had three training sessions so far and basically, the pitches have been coming on pretty good. The only issue I see with the pitches is that they’re keeping low, so you probably have to stay low when you’re executing your shots and that should work but the pitches are coming on a lot nicer than the ones we usually get in the CPL, so it should be a bit easier to get some runs,” he said.

Nicholas Pooran said he is not worried about his form and expects to be back to scoring runs once the T20 World Cup begins later this month.