Desert Vipers (VIP) will clash against Gulf Giants (GUL) in the final of the International League T20 2023 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday (February 12).
Desert Vipers beat Gulf Giants in Qualifier 1 match to book a place in the final. They scored 178 runs while batting first with Sherfane Rutherford top-scoring 37 off 19 and Tom Curran adding 29. Then Curran produced a match-winning spell with four wickets to bowl out Giants on 159 runs.
The Giants beat MI Emirates in Qualifier 2 match by four wickets to earn a place in the final.
In-form David Wiese and Chris Jordan took two wickets each to restrict MI Emirates to 167 runs while bowling first.
Then captain James Vince smashed an unbeaten 83* off 56 to guide Giants to an easy win with 11 balls remaining. They won both the group-stage matches against the Vipers and are favorites to win this match.
Going into the final game, the Gulf Giants hold a marginally greater advantage. In the group stage, they twice defeated the Desert Vipers and finished first in the points standings. But in Qualifier 1, the Vipers retaliated to get revenge.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI
Desert Vipers
AD Hales, C Munro(C), Sherfane Rutherford, W Hasaranga, Rohan Mustafa, Sam Billings, TK Curran, Sheldon Cottrell, Shiraz Ahmed, AAP Atkinson, L Wood
BENCH : BM Duckett, Benny Howell, Azam Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, R Trumpelmann, S Mahmood, Matheesha Pathirana, MRJ Watt, TS Mills, A Lyth, A Naseer, RS Panoly, D Chandimal, Jake Lintott, Dhruv Parashar
Gulf Giants
Shimron Hetmyer, CA Lynn, JM Vince(C), Gerhard Erasmus, D Wiese, Sanchit Sharma, CR Brathwaite, Colin de Grandhomme, CJ Jordan, Qais Ahmad, Aayan Afzal Khan
BENCH : WL Madsen, LA Dawson, J Overton, Rehan Ahmed, T Banton, Ollie Pope, DC Drakes, RJ Gleeson, CP Rizwan, Ashwant Valthapa, TG Helm