That concludes all the ILT20 action from us today. Thank you for joining us for this thrilling doubleheader game day! Do join us again tomorrow for more live cricket action here on ESPNcricinfo. Until then, this is Rashad Mahbub, signing off on behalf of Ranjith P. Taaataaaa!
Player of the Match, Rovman Powell: "I think the way we batted the spinners was key. They have two quality, world-class spinners, Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla. When I went to bat, it was important that we fought them off and just kept ticking over, not playing too many dot balls. Once I did that, batting against the fast bowlers came naturally. Jordan Cox was very helpful. We just didn't want to get stuck or become stagnant in the middle; we always wanted to turn over the strike. We didn't want Narine or Chawla to keep bowling at one player. We wanted to rotate the strike, and we think that was our best way to bat two world-class spinners like them. When we were 10 overs down in our innings, they asked me what a good score was. I told them that it's a good wicket, and 180 or 185 is a good score if we bowl properly and control the Powerplay. Having achieved that score, we were pretty comfortable at the halfway stage. Once we controlled that Powerplay, we knew it would be difficult for them. [Squad] It's pretty different from last year. Last year, we had more match winners, to be honest. This year, the impetus is on the senior guys, myself, Dasun Shanaka, and those guys, to really stand up and be counted. More is on us to deliver. A lot of guys have come into the team, like Cox and James Neesham; they have international standards, so we expect them to pull their weight. [Playing against West Indies players] It's a team that I hold close to my heart. It's my IPL team; I've played for them before. Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are good friends of mine, so it's always good to go one up on them."
Dasun Shanaka: "We discussed aiming for 160 to 180 at the toss, so I'm really happy about the way we set the tone. After losing three wickets, we got power from Rovman Powell and stability from Jordan Cox. We discussed having that one batter going deep until the 18th or 19th over. Rovman was special, so I'm really happy with how things happened. It's rare to see teams win after batting first in Dubai, and we achieved that today. We have the right combination, but we need to make sure we take that game deep. If there are areas to develop, we need to look into that. When it comes to bowling, the execution was there, and we picked up wickets in the Powerplay, which changed the whole momentum of the game. The partnership with Cox and Powell was very impressive. We had the discussion, and after the last game, Rovman Powell wanted to deliver something special in this game. And Cox wanted to convert his start from the last game. That's the maturity they've gained playing a lot of cricket, so I'm really happy for them."
Jason Holder: "We've got a bit to learn from this game. We didn't play our best cricket today. We were probably just a few runs short in all three departments. We were a little bit untidy in our bowling phases, conceded too many big overs, and in batting, we never really got the partnerships going. You could look at it many ways. Andre Russell has been one of our death bowlers for a number of years; he's been really good at it. It didn't quite work out for us today, but I would still back him to do it again. I thought Rovman Powell and Jordan Cox put together a really good partnership, which took the game away from us. If we honestly look at ourselves, we need to brush up on a few areas. We still got to remain positive. We can't let this loss define us today. We've got to be honest with one another, communicate well, and come back stronger. It's no point being too hard on ourselves; we have an entire tournament in front of us. We just need to tidy up in a few departments, and I'm sure we can turn things around. My body is not too bad. I'm happy that the ball came out pretty well and I executed most of what I wanted to do. That's a positive for me personally; I'll just build up again and go deeper into the tournament."
9:50 pm The defending champions, the Dubai Capitals, have finally gotten off the mark in the points table, as the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders never looked comfortable during the run chase. The chase began disastrously: Willey struck twice in the very first over, removing the in-form Alex Hales for a golden duck and Sharafu for only four runs. The Knight Riders were in all sorts of trouble, collapsing to 10/3 after just two overs. The decline continued after the Powerplay on 44/4, with Fizz deceiving Phil Salt, the top scorer of the Riders with 27 runs, bowling a well-disguised off-cutter and forcing him to chip a catch to short cover. The victory was sealed by a magnificent, collective bowling display: Salamkheil grabbed four wickets, while Willey, Fizz, and Mohammad Nabi all secured two wickets each, completing a comprehensive win for the Capitals.
Mustafa Moudi : "This innings have given us -44/4, 77/7, 88/8 and 99/9 !!"
Dubai Capitals won by 83 runs
OP Stone c Cox b Waqar Salamkheil 6 (12m 6b 1x4 0x6) SR: 100
END OF OVER:15 | 7 Runs | ADKR: 99/9 (88 runs required from 30 balls, RR: 6.60, RRR: 17.60)
- Ajay Kumar8 (5b)
- Olly Stone2 (3b)
- Mustafizur Rahman3-0-22-2
- Waqar Salamkheil3-0-25-3
END OF OVER:14 | 10 Runs 1 Wkt | ADKR: 92/9 (95 runs required from 36 balls, RR: 6.57, RRR: 15.83)
- Ajay Kumar4 (2b)
- Olly Stone0 (0b)
- Waqar Salamkheil3-0-25-3
- Mohammad Nabi4-0-12-2
SE Rutherford c Powell b Waqar Salamkheil 19 (38m 25b 1x4 0x6) SR: 76
END OF OVER:13 | 4 Runs 1 Wkt | ADKR: 82/8 (105 runs required from 42 balls, RR: 6.30, RRR: 15.00)
- Sherfane Rutherford13 (21b)
- Mohammad Nabi4-0-12-2
- Waqar Salamkheil2-0-15-2
SP Narine b Mohammad Nabi 3 (5m 5b 0x4 0x6) SR: 60
Nabi misses his run up and has to go again
Slip in for Narine
