The second part of the double header in the ILT20 competition on Saturday takes us back to Sharjah for a meeting between the bottom two teams in the table when the Dubai Capitals go up against the Gulf Giants.
The Capitals have played three and come away with just one win for their efforts. The Giants have played a game less and are yet to get off the mark, something they will be keen to do here to take some of the pressure off them.
Dubai Capitals
The Dubai Capitals haven’t started this season off in the fashion that they would have wanted with one win and two defeats with the latter defeat coming here on Friday when a score of 201 never looked like being enough against the Sharjah Warriorz. There are two things with that. Firstly they need to bounce back from that defeat but they also need to back it up the next day and that is never easy, especially in these conditions.
The Capitals are obviously going to get stronger in the second half of the campaign when some big overseas players arrive to bolster their stock but right now they have to bowl better than they did here on Friday. In their defence, this is a ground that can be particularly hard to defend, especially when someone is in and chancing their arm. They might need to go a little harder with the bat to cover for any shortfalls with the ball.
Gulf Giants
This hasn’t been the start to the season that the inaugural champions of this tournament would have wanted. The Gulf Giants have played two matches and lost them both. They could probably consider themselves as unfortunate to lose their opening game on the final ball but the second one they weren’t at the races at all and that will be a concern for them going into this match. That was on Tuesday though so they have had enough time to take stock of what went wrong there.
The issue for the Giants is their bowling department. They have a couple of bowlers still to arrive which should improve them and they are probably a batter light with Rehan Ahmed in at three. He can play as a pinch hitter but those days have gone really so they will need to work out how they can get another batter into the side at some point. Clearly the absence of Jamie Smith isn’t helping in that regard however.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on the tournament (min odds 1/2) to get £20 in free bets (2x£10 free bets) to use on any sports market! Click the image below to take advantage of this great offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly.
Key Players
Shai Hope batted through the innings for the Dubai Capitals in the previous game but he could only score 83 and in the end that was what cost them. Dubai will hope he can go deep again but move through the gears a little better this time.
It didn’t take James Vince long to adjust to the change in conditions from Sydney to here and the Gulf Giants will be hoping that their captain can get the job done again here. He has been in the news this week so a big knock here will quiet some of that down.
Betting
We knew the sixes line was a little on the low side here on Friday when it sat at 10.5 and I would imagine we are going to be on the same pitch here so a 13.5 line doesn’t look nearly high enough either when you consider that there were 24 of them in the match here the day previously. We might not get to that number here because eight of them were hit in a freak innings but there is nothing to suggest that a tournament that has been full of sixes can’t deliver another 14 of them here.
The Dubai Capitals hit 12 of those sixes here on Friday so we know that they have got their range on this ground and there is enough in the Gulf Giants side in the likes of James Vince, Shimron Hetmyer and Jordan Cox among others who can clear the ropes. I wouldn’t say that there is anything of real difficulty in either of these bowling units so all things being equal I’m expecting the sixes to flow once again here and I’m happy to go with over 13.5 sixes.
Tips
Back Over 13.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365