Dubai Capitals defeated Desert Vipers by four wickets to lift the ILT20 2025. They had a poor start to the tournament, losing four of five matches but the team scripted a tremendous comeback winning eight of their last nine matches to lift the championship. On the night of the finals, they faced setbacks time and again and just when the game was slipping away from their hands, Rovman Powell, Dasun Shanaka and Sikandar Raza played vital knocks to win it for the team.
Chasing 190 runs, Dubai were reduced to 31/3 and it was a mountain to climb for them to change the tide and win it. That’s when Powell and Shai Hope stitched a crucial partnership of 84 runs and that brought the team close to the target. Even so, they were far behind in the match. Powell eventually went to score 63 runs off 38 deliveries, which changed the tone and rest, Shanaka and Raza did it.
Shanaka made 21 runs off 10 ten, while the Zimbabwe international hit an unbeaten 34 runs off only 12 balls. He smashed a six and a boundary in the last over to get the job done. Meanwhile, after the match, star Dubai batter David Warner noted that it was important for him and the team to win it for the GMR group, who lifted their first championship in history. Delhi Capitals came close to winning it in IPL a couple of times but failed and so did Pretoria Capitals in SA20 2023.
“The most important thing was to do it for the GMR family. They have worked hard, got to lots of finals. Credit to them. Lots of confidence in this side. Serious talent in the lower and middle order, and our bowlers have done a hell of a job. We backed ourselves in the middle overs, we knew we could take their spinners on. We have played a few games on this pitch so we knew how to pace ourselves for the chase,” Warner said after the match.
