GEORGETOWN – The Desert Vipers and the San Francisco Unicorns both qualified for the Global Super League (GSL) playoffs with wins in their final preliminary matches.
With the unbeaten, defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors already assured a place in Saturday’s final, both the Vipers and Unicorns needed to win to have any chance of advancing to Thursday’s Qualifier.
The Vipers did so by edging the winless Perth Scorchers by one wicket in a thrilling contest at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Tuesday.
Andre Fletcher hit the topscore of 40 off 47 balls and Akeal Hosein scored an unbeaten 32 off 35 balls, as the Scorchers could only manage 112 for six in 20 overs.
Spinners Khary Pierre (2-14) and Vitel Lawes (2-18) were the main wicket takers for the Vipers.
Faced with a seemingly straightforward run chase, the Vipers needed Rilee Rossouw’s even 50 off 31 balls to get up to 116 for nine with one ball remaining in the contest.
The win moved their record to 2-2, but they still needed a favourable outcome in the match between the Unicorns and Lahore Qalandars to know if they would advance.
The Unicorns did them a favour by demolishing the Qalandars by seven wickets in the day’s second match, cruising to 156 for three in 15.2 overs in reply to their opponent’s total of 152 for six.
They were led by skipper Hassan Khan’s unbeaten knock of 53 off 33 balls containing five sixes and two fours.
Earlier Callum Stow took 4-25 to restrict the Qalandars after they had been given a good start thanks to Shayan Jahangir’s 61 off 50 balls.
With the result, the Unicorns and the Qalandars also finished with 2-2 records. However, the Unicorns finished in second position with a net run rate of 0.136, the Vipers were third with -0.074, while the Qalandars placed fourth with a net run rate of -0.512.
The Qualifier between the Unicorns and Vipers will be played on Thursday.
CMC
