Twitter Reactions: Gulf Giants dislodge Desert Vipers from No. 1 spot following comprehensive win

Gulf Giants comprehensively defeated Desert Vipers by 25 runs in match 27 of the ongoing ILT20 league, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday. The two sides headed into the fixture as the best two teams in the lucrative T20 league for the kind of performances displayed thus far.

While Desert Vipers stood in the first place with 14 points from their nine outings, James Vince-led Gulf took the second spot with 12 games in eight contests. Speaking about the match, Colin Munro won the toss and put the Gulf franchise to set a total.

What followed was a decent head start by openers Tom Banton and skipper James, who stitched a 46-run partnership before the former was dismissed courtesy of a run-out. Soon after his dismissal, explosive hitter Chris Lynn, Gerhard Erasmus, and James fell in quick time.

The major highlight was the knock by Shimron Hetmyer, who came down the middle-order and lit up the Dubai crowd. The batter smashed a 35-ball 54, which included four maximums and two fours to steer the side to attain a rather competitive total of 180 in their 20 overs. Matheesha Pathirana of the vipers scalped two wickets in the contest and returned bowling figures of 2/36 in his four.

Vipers stunned during competitive run chase

In response to the total, Desert Vipers replicated a similar start like Gulf as the duo opener in Rohan Mustafa and Englishman Alex Hales got 57 runs between them. However, the dismissal of Rohan immediately handed the Gulf franchise a major boost as the side sent four other batters packing swiftly for just 88 runs.

Down the order, Benny Howell and Tom Curran tried hard to revive the run chase with their 34-run partnership but eventually succumbed under pressure.

With this, Gulf clinched the victory by 25 runs and claimed the No. 1 spot in the standings of the league by dislodging Desert Vipers.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the contest between the two heavyweights-

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