ILT20: Dubai Capitals dazzle to knock out Knight Riders in the Eliminator by 85 runs

Timely knocks from opener Tom Banton, who scored 44 off 31 balls with seven boundaries, Tom Abell, who contributed 41 off 29 balls with six boundaries, and skipper Sam Billings, who remained unbeaten on 46 off 26 balls with two boundaries and two sixes, as well as Sikandar Raza's breezy 40 off 19 balls with five boundaries and one six, gave Dubai Capitals a winning total of 188 for 5.

Knight Riders failed to rise to the challenge and were bowled out for a paltry 103 runs through splendid bowling displays from Scott Kuggeleijn (4 for 17) backed by Zahir Khan (2 for 25) and Sikandar Raza (2 for 27). Capitals thus booked their slot for the Qualifier 2.

Knight Riders' chase began on a bad note, losing opener Jason Roy to the second delivery of the first over from Kuggeleijn for a duck. Opener Michael Pepper too fell in the second over to Olly Stone brilliantly caught by a diving Abell at cover for 5.

Capitals further strengthened their position through Kuggeleijn forcing one-drop Joe Clarke to play into the hands of Leus Du Plooy for 13 and consistent Alishan Sharafu out to a spectacular diving catch by Dasun Shanaka at the short cover-point for a duck. Half the Knight Riders were back in the dug-out when Laurie Evans going for a sweep got bowled by Zahir Khan for 7.

With the score reading 46 for 5, Sam Hain managed to keep the score ticking through a sedate 29 before the accurate Raza clean bowled him. Raza then went on to end David Willey's knock of 36 by clean-bowling him too. Kuggeleijin speeded up the victory getting skipper Sunil Narine too caught by Banton at mid-off for 1.

Earlier, Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bowl against the Capitals. Opener Tom Banton scored a boundary off the first ball of the match from David Willey. However, along with opener Max Holden, he could only put on 15 runs before Holden miscued his lofted shot and was caught by Laurie Evans at mid-off for 1.

Du Plooy scored a run-a-ball nine runs but was clean bowled by UAE left-arm medium pacer Sabir Ali with a delivery that went through the bat and pad gap to hit the off stump. Tom Abell then joined Banton and took the score to within seven runs of the 100-run mark through a 63-run partnership for the third wicket. Fabian Allen then clean-bowled Banton for 44 as he attempted a reverse shot.

Skipper Billings, batting down the order, joined Abell. At the score of 117, Sabir Ali struck again with a cutter that beat Abell and hit his off stump for 41. Sikandar Raza, one of their star performers, along with Billings, took the score past the 150 mark in 17.2 overs.

Billings then hit Sabir Ali for six and two consecutive boundaries off the first three deliveries in the penultimate over. In the last over, Josh Little ended Raza's valuable knock of 40 off 19 balls, caught by Evans at long-on. Although this ended his 69-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Billings, 54 valuable runs were added in the last four overs that gave Capitals an impressive total.

Sikandar Raza emerged as the hero once again for the Capitals to bag the Player of the Match award.

"Any time a role is given to me, I will try to give my best. As long as I am prepared, I am happy to do it. We thought that if we get 160, they have to bat really well to win. Once we got 188, all we had to do was to get wickets in the powerplay. And once we did that, we were always in the game," Raza said as quoted by a release from ILT20.

A happy Capitals' skipper Sam Billings, remarked: "We have played a couple of games here. But getting yourself in is always tricky. If you can get past 10-15, you can get going. We thought 160+ would be a very good score, and we were very happy with that score. They (Kuggeleijn and Stone) complement each other brilliantly. I am really happy with the way we have gone in the last three games. We are in a very good shape."

Sunil Narine, captain of Knight Riders, was sporting despite the defeat: "In this tournament, powerplay is the key. Losing three wickets, we were always on the back foot. Reaching the second round was our first goal. We had a decent tournament. There were some positives. A lovely team bonding." (ANI)