DUBAI – The DP World ILT20 Sea­son 3 has reached its thrilling knock­out stage, with the Desert Vipers, Dubai Cap­i­tals, MI Emi­rates, and Shar­jah War­riorz se­cur­ing their spots in the play­offs in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates.

The tour­na­ment, fea­tur­ing a lu­cra­tive prize pool of over $1.3 mil­lion, is set for an in­tense fin­ish as the top teams vie for the cov­et­ed ti­tle.

The Desert Vipers, who dom­i­nat­ed the league stage with an ear­ly play­off qual­i­fi­ca­tion, will face the Dubai Cap­i­tals in Qual­i­fi­er 1 Wednes­day (Feb­ru­ary 5) at the Dubai In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um.

The win­ner will ad­vance di­rect­ly to the Fi­nal, while the los­er will get a sec­ond chance in Qual­i­fi­er 2. The Vipers, led by stel­lar per­for­mances from Alex Hales (286 runs) and Sam Cur­ran (267 runs), have been a force to reck­on with.

Their bowl­ing at­tack, spear­head­ed by Wanin­du Hasaranga and Mo­ham­mad Amir (11 wick­ets each), has been equal­ly im­pres­sive.

How­ev­er, the Vipers have shown signs of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty re­cent­ly, los­ing two of their last three match­es.

They will be ea­ger to re­claim their dom­i­nance against a con­fi­dent Dubai Cap­i­tals side, who de­feat­ed them twice ear­li­er in the sea­son.

The Cap­i­tals, last sea­son’s run­ners-up, over­came a shaky start with three con­sec­u­tive loss­es to fin­ish strong, win­ning five of their last six match­es.

Shai Hope has been their stand­out bats­man, lead­ing the run charts with 467 runs, in­clud­ing a cen­tu­ry and three fifties. Dush­man­tha Chameera (12 wick­ets) and Gul­badin Naib (314 runs and 9 wick­ets) have al­so been piv­otal in their resur­gence.

The Elim­i­na­tor on Feb­ru­ary 6 at the Za­yed Crick­et Sta­di­um in Abu Dhabi will see MI Emi­rates take on Shar­jah War­riorz. The win­ner will ad­vance to Qual­i­fi­er 2, where they will face the los­er of Qual­i­fi­er 1 for a place in the Fi­nal.

MI Emi­rates, the reign­ing cham­pi­ons, have had a mixed sea­son with five wins in 10 match­es. Tom Ban­ton has been their star per­former, scor­ing 464 runs, in­clud­ing two cen­turies.

Cap­tain Nicholas Pooran has al­so con­tributed with three half-cen­turies. On the bowl­ing front, Fazal­haq Fa­rooqi has been ex­cep­tion­al, lead­ing the wick­et-tak­ing charts with 20 scalps, in­clud­ing a record-break­ing 5/16 against the Cap­i­tals.

The Shar­jah War­riorz, af­ter a mid-sea­son slump of four con­sec­u­tive loss­es, bounced back with three straight wins to se­cure their play­off berth. Their top or­der, led by Tom Kohler-Cad­more (347 runs) and John­son Charles (305 runs), has been in fine form.

Adam Milne and cap­tain Tim Southee have been the back­bone of their bowl­ing at­tack, claim­ing 11 and 8 wick­ets, re­spec­tive­ly. The War­riorz head in­to the Elim­i­na­tor with mo­men­tum, hav­ing de­feat­ed MI Emi­rates by eight wick­ets in their fi­nal group-stage match.

Knock­out Sched­ule

Wednes­day (Feb 5)

Qual­i­fi­er 1: Desert Vipers vs. Dubai Cap­i­tals, Dubai In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um

Thurs­day (Feb 6)

Elim­i­na­tor: MI Emi­rates vs. Shar­jah War­riorz, Za­yed Crick­et Sta­di­um, Abu Dhabi

Fri­day (Feb 7)

Qual­i­fi­er 2: Los­er of Qual­i­fi­er 1 vs. Win­ner of Elim­i­na­tor, Shar­jah Crick­et Sta­di­um

Sun­day (Feb 9)

Fi­nal, Dubai In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um

CMC