That marks the end of our coverage from this fiercely competitive encounter between Desert Vipers and Gulf Giants. Desert Vipers got a sluggish start but recovered well to get closer to the target and took the game to the super over. They outplayed the Gulf Giants in the super over and took the game away from them.
For now, this is Saptak Sanyal signing off on behalf of my co-commentators Arjun Bhalla and Mohammad Anab and the scorer/analyst of this game Yogesh Kumar. Good night.
Daniel Lawrence (Player of the Match):"Not really. I was too upset at one stage that I decided to go after every ball. I didn't feel calm at the start. We needed 12.50 runs per over on a slow surface and then we decided to take the bowlers on.
Little bit drained. We have played a lot of games so far and all set for the game tomorrow in Abu Dhabi."
Player of the Match: Daniel Lawrence.
Sam Curran (Desert Vipers Captain): "It has been a trend in the league, but we are three off three balls. They bowled really well in the powerplay, but we came in the middle overs and finished off well.
He has been a nice hitter; he has been hitting it cleanly in the nets as well. A great talent for us and obviously, for the UAE. We will need to travel to Abu Dhabi early in the morning to play MI there, so we need to get to the hotel quickly."
Moeen Ali (Gulf Giants Captain): "We just made a couple of mistakes at the wrong time and allowed the Vipers to come back into the game. They hit some of the ball very well, to be fair but just made some mistakes. The game is never over until it is over, because there is so much hitting nowadays. Just made some mistakes. Always had the chance to win the game. It's difficult to swallow a super over defeat sometimes."
Dispatch of the Day: Khuzaima Bin Tanvir
Time for post-match presentations...
Azmat Omarzai gets the white belt for getting to the top of the wicket-takers' chart.
12:19 AM IST and 10:49 PM Local Time : The Desert Vipers have kept their nerves in the super over and have emerged out victorious in the super over. They restricted the pair of Moeen Ali and Tom Moores and Naseem Shah has defended 13 runs.
Gulf Giants batted first in the game and they got off to a fascinating start. Pathum Nissanka and Rahmanullah Gurbaz were on song tonight and added 73 runs for the opening stand in 7 overs. Nissanka scored most of the runs with his 56 off 29 hitting 4 fours and as many maximums. Gurbaz was then joined by James Vince and they added 54 for the second wicket. Gurbaz got out for 41 and the Giants' who were looking good to get 200 on the board got slow. A few cameos from the lower order batters took them to 179.
For the Desert Vipers, Khuzaima Bin Tanvir and Noor Ahmad took a couple of wickets. David Payne took one wicket.
In pursuit of the 180-run target, Desert Vipers lost two of their openers Fakhar Zaman and Andries Gous early in the innings but Max Holden and Sam Curran held the innings together. They added 48 runs off 35 balls in their third wicket stand. Sam Curran was joined by Daniel Lawrence after Holden got out.
Lawrence and Curran started posting runs quickly on the scoreboard. They added 60 runs from 37 balls in their stand. Curran got out for 44 and that's when the rollercoaster started. Vipers had Hetmyer and Hasan Nawaz in the middle who got a few big hits but failed to capitalize on the good starts. Lawrence hit 6 fours and 2 maximums on his way to score 56 off 31 balls before getting out.
When 13 was required off the final over, Omarzai was smacked for a maximum by Khuzaima Bin Tanvir but the Afghan pacer came back with a wicket next ball. He took the equation down to 3 off 1 and Vriitya Aravind took two runs in the final ball to level the scores. Desert Vipers ended with 179/9 and the game went to the super over.
Azmatullah Omarzai was the star of the show picking up 4 wickets for 32 runs. Nuwan Thushara took 2 wickets for 33 runs.
In the Super Over, Desert Vipers sent Shimron Hetmyer and Daniel Lawrence to bat. Nuwan Thushara took the ball for the Gulf Giants. Thushara did really well barring the maximum in the penultimate ball and it took the Vipers to 13 and Lawrence perished in the final ball.
Moeen Ali and Tom Moores were the batters sent by Gulf Giants. Naseem Shah bowled a couple of loose balls but the Giants' skipper Moeen failed to dispatch it. Eventually the Pakistani pacer did well to restrict the Giants to just 8 and the Vipers won it by 5 runs in the Super Over.