Olly Stoneโs four-wicket haul went in vain as Dubai Capitals imploded in a rather straightforward run chase of 127. After a poor start, the Capitals lost wickets at regular intervals. Batters ran aimlessly to run themselves out as Dasun Shanaka remained stranded on one end and Gulf Giants won the low-scoring encounter by 19 runs.ย
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Once again, Warner won the toss and opted to field first. Haider Ali was hit for two boundaries by Jamie Smith in the first over. Scott Kuggeleijn provided the early breakthrough with the wicket of Smith on the third ball of his first over. Olly Stone was introduced in the third over and he bowled a double wicket maiden removing Chris Lynn and Jordan Cox. Kuggeleijn struck again to dismiss Gerhard Erasmus. Gulf Giants lost four wickets for just 17 runs. After the powerplay overs, they were 30/4.
James Vince and Shimron Hetmyer tried to get the innings back on track. At the halfway stage, they were 60/4. In the 11th over, Vince tried to attack and hit two boundaries. But he could not continue and got caught and bowled. He scored 32 runs from 28 balls. Aayan Afzal Khan struggled to score freely. After scoring just 10 runs from 17 balls, he was retired out. But in the next over, Stone came back to dismiss Hetmyer. He scored 34 runs from 28 balls. In the penultimate over, Kuggeleijn dismissed Chris Jordan. In the penultimate over, Stone made Overton his fourth victim of the evening. Dominic Drakes's unbeaten 12-ball 24 helped Gulf Giants finish well and post 126/9.
Warner's struggles with the bat continued. He hit Overton for a six in the third over but got caught the next ball. Rahmanullah Gurbaz shrugged off a slow start with two consecutive sixes off super sub Blessing Muzarabani. The Zimbabwean fast bowler came back well and got rid of Gurbaz with an off-cutter. Jordan in his first over got Sam Billings' wicket with a peach of a delivery. Dubai Capitals were 48/3 after powerplay overs. Erasmus did the damage with the ball as Max Holden got bowled. After three boundary-less over, Ben Dunk got run out attempting a non-existent single. In the next over, Sikander Raza got bowled by Aayan. Dubai Capitals were reduced to 72/6 in the 12th over.
In the next over, another batter was run out. Kuggeleijn ran towards the non-striker's end without looking at his partner and paid the price for it. Stone could not do much with the bat after taking a four-fer. He got bowled by Zuhaib Zubair. Shanaka hit a six in the same over to give his team some home. But in the next over, Aayan got the wicket of Akif Raja. Shanaka could not win the game single-handedly. Ali ran for a single and got run out. Shanaka remained stranded on an unbeaten 24 as Dubai Capitals were bowled out for 107 and lost the game by 19 runs.
This was Dubai Capitals' fourth loss in seven games. They are placed fifth on the points table. Gulf Giants have three wins from four games as well but are in the third position with a better net run rate.
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