Abu Dhabi Knight Riders

And then Amshi de Silva made all kind of waves in his first auction as an American.

Well, the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders said, "We've seen enough from Major League Cricket.

We're gonna spend $100,000 to bring him to our team." Watch out for these Americans in the ILT20 later this year.

Andres Gros continues his world tour.

"Be around in this period of time, and then we'll guarantee that your players are getting cricket." Which it's actually quite an interesting way of doing things.

But anyway, Desert Vipers, um, put a bid in for good players, and then Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, Dubai Capitals, Sharjah Warriors, Gulf Giants, and MI Emirates all went, "Ah, fine."

Mm.

All good fun.

Coming up, we hear from head coach Jack Luffman, who gives us his perspective on another remarkable night of action.

The Gulf Giants team, the Vipers' opponents in the ultimate match, were the leading line-up in the league stage with four wins from their five matches, and they brushed aside the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the first semi, winning by six wickets with a remarkable 23 balls in hand, chasing 172 to win.

As for the Vipers, they ended up facing the Warriors after finishing third in the league stage, while the Warriors were second.

Both teams ended up on six points with three wins and two losses, but the Warriors were ahead thanks to net run rate.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Vipers Voices, the podcast of the Desert Vipers, the champion team of the DP World ILT20, as we continue our coverage of the ILT20 Development Tournament.

And in this episode we look back on a defeat for the Vipers side at the hands of the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders team by 88 runs at the ICC Academy at Dubai Sports City on Sunday evening the 20th of September.

The ADKR side raced to 196 for 8 batting first and the Vipers replied with 108 all out from 15.5 overs.

It's a result that leaves the Vipers outside the top four places on net run rate.

And with the top four going into the semifinals, it means the next match against the side immediately above them, the Dubai Capitals, has become, in effect, a quarterfinal.

Just to remind you, the ILT20 Development Tournament sees all six franchises' field teams and it serves as a shop window for the UAE players ahead of the player auction in early October that precedes Season 5 of the DP World ILT20.

The match against the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders team went wrong for the Vipers from the first over.

19 runs came from it, part of a total of 71 for three in the power play, and although those three wickets meant the Vipers gave themselves a chance of clawing their way back into the match, The batters for ADKR rebuilt effectively, laid a platform for a late assault and then plundered 52 from the final five overs.

Two important innings helped to take the Vipers over the line as Nilanj Keswani made an unbeaten 27 from 33 balls with only two fours while Zeeshan Abid in his first innings of the tournament eased any pressure that was building by scoring 21 from 13 deliveries with two fours and two sixes.

So a second win for the Vipers team and after three matches on the first four days of the tournament the side now has two clear days before its fourth outing against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders on Sunday 20th September.

A day after that, and Vitya Aravind's side play their final match of the league stage before, hopefully, the semi-finals on Wednesday 23rd and the final the day after that.

Remember, the Vipers were runners-up 12 months ago, losing out to Sharjah Warriors.

We'll have at least one more game on Wednesday and then the final a week today.

Jack Luffman, the Desert Vipers development lead, reflecting on a second win of the ILT20 development tournament for his side.

So the Vipers now have a couple of days to recharge before their next match of the development tournament against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders at the ICC Academy at Dubai Sports City on Sunday the 20th of September.

We'll be back to reflect on that match and so please like and subscribe to this podcast if you want to get all the latest reaction to the action from the Vipers camp.