The Knight Riders posted 176 runs on the board batting first after Michael Pepper slammed a half-century. In the chase, the Giants failed to build partnerships and fell 37 runs short. Riding on Michael Pepper’s quick-fire fifty Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ADKR) defeated Gulf Giants by 37 runs in the second match of the double-header of the ILT20 in Dubai on Sunday.
Despite a four-wicket haul by Aayan Afzal Khan of the UAE, Giants failed to stop ADKR from notching up the second win from their fourth match of the tournament. Abu Dhabi Knight Riders beat Gulf Giants by 37 runs in the 12th fixture of the ILT20 2025 season.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : The Dubai pitch generally favors batters with good pace and carry, but there’s also assistance for pacers, especially during the initial phases. As the game progresses, batting tends to become more straightforward. The weather is projected to be clear with temperatures around 19.9°C and 53% humidity, providing ideal conditions for cricket with no rain anticipated.
Toss : Gulf Giants skipper James Vince won the toss and chose to field with no changes in the playing XI. Abu Dhabi Knight Riders skipper Sunil Narine batting first made two changes in the playing XI bringing in Micheal Pepper and Andries Gous for Phil Salt and Charith Asalanka.
Micheal Pepper’s Fifty powers ADKR to 176 for 9 in 20 overs despite Ayaan Khan’s 4-fer
Abu Dhabi Knight Riders were batting first and Kyle Mayer came out to open with Andries Gous. Despite a strong 39-run opening stand, both openers were dismissed in quick succession. Kyle Mayers and Andries Gous gave ADKR a strong start as they added 39 runs in just four overs. Both the batsmen made their intentions clear as they started cutting loose from the beginning. They gave a good platform for a big total with brisk opening.
Giants needed to break the partnership to stop ADKR from posting a big total, which would be improbable to chase. But all their efforts to put a brake on the run rate was going in vain. Mills rattled the stumps of Mayers to give Giants the first breakthrough. Soon after the dismissal of Mayers, Gous was sent back to the pavilion by Zadran.

Joe Clarke showed some resistance on 24 off 18 balls. Clarke tried to flick an arm ball from Aayan Khan towards the leg side. However, the ball deflected off his pads to uproot his leg stump. After taking two wickets within a span of six runs, Giants’ bowlers had a chance to choke the flow of runs. With two new batsmen on the crease, Giants bowlers started mounting the pressure.
Joe Clarke and Michael Pepper shared a 52-run stand for the third wicket not only to soak the pressure but also take ADKR to a strong position. UAE star all-rounder Aayan broke the dangerous-looking partnership by getting rid of Clarke. The dismissal of Clarke opened the floodgates for Aayan. He ripped through the middle-order of ADKR.

Aayan Khan uprooted the stumps of Clarke to make it 99/3. After the departure of Clarke, ADKR lost wickets in bulks. None of their batsmen could withstand the onslaught of Aayan. The wily spinner had Alishan Sharafu caught by Adair before Erasmus took a stunner on the boundary line to dismiss Andre Russell off Aayan Khan . After hitting a six, Russell again tried to go over the top. He had almost cleared it but Erasmus got hold of the ball, leaning backwards at the rope.
He threw the ball to Zadran before falling on the other side of the boundary line as Aayan Khan picked up his third wicket. To complete his four-wicket haul, Aayan Khan clean bowled captain Sunil Narine as ADKR were reduced to 131/6 from 99/3. Micheal Pepper was waging the lone battle on the other end.
Michael Pepper brought up his fifty with a single in 31 balls. He hit one more six before falling prey to Adair, who got his first wicket of the match. Pepper’s inning was peppered with six fours and two sixes.
While the top order failed to build partnerships, Michael Pepper scored a gritty half-century to score 57 off 35 balls. Once again, the middle and lower order failed to score more than 20 runs individually. Hence, due to the lack of firepower, Abu Dhabi Knight Riders finished with 176 runs total. For Gulf Giants, Aayan Khan stood out with four wickets in his four-over spell and conceded just 14 runs. Muzarabani also chipped in two wickets to restrict the Knight Riders.
Jason played a quick-fire cameo of 9-ball 16. He was well supported by David Willey, who also scored a useful 11 as the duo added 20 runs for the eighth wicket to help ADKR post fighting total of 176/9.
Ali Khan’s economical spell help ADKR beat Gulf Giants
The Gulf Giants also struggled to build partnerships in the second inning. Adam Lyth was dismissed by David Willey, resulting in an early breakthrough in the powerplay. James Vince, the captain, holed out to Willey off Ibrar Ahmed’s deceptive delivery and lost his wicket after just 14 off 9 balls. While Ibrahim Zadran added a crucial 24 off 22 balls, he couldn’t convert it into a big score. Sunil Narine unraveled his magic to clean up Zadran’s stumps.
The match was predominantly dominated by the UAE players, who left their indelible impression on the game. If Aayan took four wickets, Ibrar also picked up two. Chasing, Giants got off to a faltering start as they lost their first wicket with just three runs on the board.

Opener Adam Lyth was caught by Mayers off Willey. After that, they kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals and could never recover from there. UAE bowler Ibrar, who made his debut, got rid of James Vince for his first scalp of the ILT20 career and gave a second jolt to the Giants. Ibrar struck again to fox Cox as Giants lost their third wicket.
Giants needed a big partnership to remain in the hunt but Sunil Narine added to their woes as he dislodged the bails of Ibrahim Zadran to make it 59/4. The responsibility of taking the Giants through came on the shoulders of Gerhard Erasmus and Shimron Hetmyer. They kept the chase alive for a brief time with a 37-run stand for the fifth wicket before being dismissed on the same score by Holder and Ali Khan respectively.

After the departure of Hetmyer and Erasmus, Aayan and Adair added 34 runs but consumed too many deliveries which brought the equation down to 50 needed off 12 balls. The Giants’ innings was wrapped up for 139/8.
The Gulf Giants’ middle order collapsed and failed to score more than 25 runs individually. Ali Khan chipped crucial wickets to remove Shimron Hetmyer and Mark Adair. Jason Holder also scalped two wickets as the required run rate soared for the Giants. The team eventually fell short of 37 runs to suffer a humiliating defeat.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Sunil Narine the winning skipper ADKR skipper said : (On Ibrar Ahmed) I have seen him in the T10, and I know what is about. He has been putting in the work in the training sessions. We had the self belief that we could perform today. We had a par score today but we were good to score 200 at one stage, so we need to work on that, to maximise the middle order.
James Vince the loosing GG skipper said : (On Aayan Khan) He was superb, bowled well last night as well. Credit to him, seen him grow over the last couple of years. Got a couple of big wickets today. We made scoring a bit easier than it should have been on that pitch in the first 10 overs. With the bat, we couldn’t keep going and get those partnerships going. They bowled well, targeted the top of the stumps and we couldn’t chase well.
Micheal Pepper Player of the Match for his half century said : When the ball was hard, it was coming on nicely. There wasn’t much bounce on that wicket and through the game it got slower and slower. Had to change my game a bit, was hard to hit it squarer and had to focus on hitting it straight.
We have a long batting order, but someone still needs to be the one to step up and hopefully cash in. It is quite different from Abu Dhabi, there is more swing and seam there. More pace and bounce as well. Very pleased with this performance, nice to get that score today in the competition.
A comprehensive win for Abu Dhabi Knight Riders. They got the runs in the first innings thanks to a fifty from Michael Pepper, with cameos from Mayers and Clarke. In reply, the Gulf Giants were never really in the chase. They lost Adam Lyth in the first over, and Vince was dismissed in the powerplay as well.
The Giants had a partnership going between Ibrahim Zadran and Erasmus, but when the Afghan was dismissed, it opened the floodgates. There was some impressive bowling from the impact sub Ali Khan and the local lad Ibrar Ahmad, both of whom got a couple of wickets. Sunil Narine was consistent as usual, and the runs were too many for the Giants to really pose a challenge.