Abu Dhabi Knight Riders and Dubai Capitals are set to clash in the Eliminator at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Saturday in the ongoing International League T20 (ILT20).
DC secured their place in the playoffs in their final league match, defeating MI Emirates by 19 runs on Saturday. Max Holden (51) and Haider Ali (3/16) were the stars of that victory. In the batting department, they will be hoping star players Sikandar Raza and Sam Billings can continue their good form. Leus du Plooy will also be an important cog after his stellar SA20 outing.
ADKR finished third in the table, but are coming off the back of two losses; a heavy defeat at the hands of Sharjah Warriors and a close one against Gulf Giants. In Imad Wasim, Sunil Narine, David Willey and Ali Khan, the Knight Riders have a solid bowling unit but need their batters to come to the party. Only Michael Pepper and Alishan Sharafu have scored over 200 runs for them so far.
This should be an exciting contest, and it it set to take place at 8:00pm on February 13.
The Sporting News takes a look at all the T20 records on this venue.
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The Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi has hosted 180 T20Is, with the first-ever T20I taking place on February 9, 2010, between USA and Scotland.
This ground in Abu Dhabi has a capacity of around 20,000.
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The Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium has been a pitch where it hasn’t been easy to score a lot of runs. Both spinners and pacers are able to exploit the pitch to good effect.
The fact that no total higher than 167 has been chased down on this venue in T20Is says a lot. However, chasing should be the key.
Average 1st innings score in Abu Dhabi | 151 |
Matches won after batting first | 82 |
Matches won by chasing team | 96 |
In the most recent T20 at this venue, Dubai Capitals beat MI Emirates by 19 runs in the ILT20.
Islamabad United’s 247/2 against Peshawar Zalmi in in the 2021 Pakistan Super League is the highest score by a team on this ground.
Ireland’s William Porterfield scored an unbeaten 127 against USA in 2013 on this venue, which is the highest individual score by any player in a T20 in Abu Dhabi.
Denmark’s Aftab Ahmed registered figures of 6/20 in his four overs in a T20I against Papua New Guinea in 2012, which is the best bowling figure at this venue.