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The ILT20 2025 final between Dubai Capitals and Desert Vipers on February 9 witnessed a few heated exchanges. One of the incidents took place during eventual winners Dubai Capitals' run chase when former Pakistan left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir got Afghanistan all-rounder Gulbadin Naib's wicket with an in-swinging yorker. Amir mocked Naib by imitating his 'bicep flex' celebration. Naib ignored Amir's words and opted for DRS which did not go in his favour. After the four-wicket win over Desert Vipers, Naib opened on the incident.
"I always say it is a gentleman's game. You should respect each other. If you don't show respect, no one will respect you either. He knows how much respect he got by doing this act. As a cricketer, as a human being, you should respect everyone," Gulbadin told The Hindustan Times after Sikandar Raza finished the run chase in style.
Naib bowled just one over in the final and conceded 10 runs. He walked out to bat at no.3 but departed after scoring five runs including a boundary off three deliveries. However, Azam Khan's mistake while stumping led to Rovman Powell scoring 63 runs from 38 balls. Dasun Shanaka's 10-ball 21 followed by Raza's whirlwind cameo of 34 from 12 balls helped Capitals get over the line with four balls to spare.
"The greatness of the tournament is that sometimes you perform, sometimes you don’t. I couldn’t today but I gave my 110% throughout the tournament, today was a full team effort from the boys. The management has given us all the confidence, we have all power hitters in the team. Credit to Sikandar for the way he took us through tonight. This franchise has been getting to finals but not winning, so glad we could give them what we could," the former Afghanistan captain told the broadcasters.
Naib's all-round show in ILT20 2025
Naib finished the season as sixth-highest run-scorer. The 33-year-old scored 381 runs from 12 innings at an average of 42.33 including four half-centuries. He scored the most fifties in the season. He was impressive with the ball as well taking 11 wickets at an average of 18.45.
This is Capitals franchise's maiden title across sports and franchise leagues. In the previous season, Naib was also part of Delhi Capitals (DC). However, he was not retained by the franchise and did not find any takers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction.
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