DUBAI -West In­dies bats­man Nicholas Pooran de­liv­ered a mas­ter­class per­for­mance un­der pres­sure, to steer his MI Emi­rates side to a cru­cial five-wick­et vic­to­ry over the Gulf Gi­ants in match 26 of the DP World ILT20 at the Dubai In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates on Fri­day.

The MI Emi­rates skip­per Pooran slammed an un­beat­en 58 off 37 balls to earn him the Play­er of the Match award, as the Emi­rates chased down the 174 need­ed to se­cure vic­to­ry.

Sent in to bat, the Gulf Gi­ants made a promis­ing start, thanks to open­ers Ger­hard Eras­mus and James Vince, who found the bound­aries with ease. How­ev­er, Akeal Ho­sein pro­vid­ed MI Emi­rates with an ear­ly break­through, dis­miss­ing Eras­mus for 12 in the third over.

Vince then found an able part­ner in Jor­dan Cox as they guid­ed the Gi­ants to 52-1 at the end of the pow­er­play. Their 51-run stand kept the score­board tick­ing, but Alzarri Joseph end­ed Cox’s in­nings in the 10th over for 20.

Vince com­piled a well-earned half-cen­tu­ry and he was soon joined by Shim­ron Het­my­er, as the pair looked set for an ex­plo­sive fin­ish.

A cru­cial 19-run 16th over gave the Gi­ants a late boost, but MI Emi­rates tight­ened their grip soon af­ter, dis­miss­ing Het­my­er for 15 and Vince for a su­perb 86 off 50 balls.

In the end, Tim David and Chris Jor­dan re­mained un­beat­en on 10 each, tak­ing the Gulf Gi­ants to a re­spectable to­tal of 173-6 in 20 overs.

MI Emi­rates start­ed the chase in top gear as open­ers An­dre Fletch­er and Muham­mad Waseem took the at­tack to the bowlers, rac­ing to 44 be­fore Waseem fell for a quick­fire 26 off 10 balls.

Tom Ban­ton con­tributed 11 be­fore Aayan Khan struck again, and when James Vince ran out Kusal Per­era for just one, MI Emi­rates found them­selves in a tricky spot at 61 for three in the eight over.

Fletch­er, how­ev­er, kept the score­board mov­ing with a steady 31 be­fore he was dis­missed by Bless­ing Muzara­bani. With MI Emi­rates los­ing wick­ets at reg­u­lar in­ter­vals, Pooran and Bevon Ja­cobs took up the task of re­build­ing the in­nings.

Re­quir­ing 71 off the fi­nal five overs with six wick­ets in hand, Pooran and Ja­cobs launched a cal­cu­lat­ed coun­ter­at­tack, stitch­ing to­geth­er a cru­cial 53-run part­ner­ship in just 33 balls. Ja­cobs fell for 18, cour­tesy of Chris Jor­dan, but Pooran re­mained un­fazed.

With Ro­mario Shep­herd pro­vid­ing sup­port, Pooran reached his half-cen­tu­ry in the 18th over, shift­ing the pres­sure on­to the Gulf Gi­ants.

Shep­herd’s late fire­works of 23 off nine balls set up a tense fin­ish, leav­ing MI Emi­rates need­ing six runs off the fi­nal over. Pooran wast­ed no time, dis­patch­ing the first ball over cow cor­ner for a tow­er­ing six, to seal the sen­sa­tion­al five-wick­et vic­to­ry.

CMC