Shepherd's heroics help MI Emirates open account

Romario Shepherd starred at the death with both bat and ball to help MI Emirates open their account in ILT20 2025. Shepherd's heroics ensured Emirates picked up a tight four-run win as a result of which Sharjah Warriorz remained winless.

With Warriorz needing just 11 from the final over, Shepherd was up against it bowling to Dinesh Karthik and Adil Rashid. He didn't help his own cause when he sent down a wide first ball. However, Shepherd executed one yorker after another to deny Karthik and eventually dismiss him before getting the job done for his team. Prior to that, Warriorz appeared to be in pole position at one stage following Sikandar Raza's blazing half-century.

Raza joined the crease in the final over of the powerplay when his team lost the key wicket of Tim David. At that stage, Warriorz were struggling at 48/3 only for Raza to tee off as early as in the ninth over with a couple of fours and a six to race to 23 off 12. He also hit Shakib Al Hasan for back-to-back sixes and tore into Shepherd as Warriorz raced to 151/3 after 15 overs, needing only 35 runs from the final five overs at that stage.

However, one over from AM Ghazanfar turned the contest around completely as he dismissed Raza and Dwaine Pretorius to completely derail the chase. Warriorz would have still fancied their chances of getting the job done in the final over, only for Shepherd to spoil their party.

Earlier in the evening, it was Shepherd again who made the difference right at the end of Emirates' innings. Jonny Bairstow gave his side a solid start in the powerplay and Muhammad Waseem took charge after the Englishman's departure to set up a solid platform.

Rashid then applied the brakes by first removing Nicholas Pooran, before following it up with Waseem's wicket in the same over. Despite starting off in positive fashion, Shakib retired himself out with four overs left given the big-hitters waiting in the dugout. But with Kieron Pollard not making an impact, the onus was on Shepherd to provide the impetus. The allrounder hammered back-to-back sixes off Maheesh Theekshana and then rounded off the innings with two more sixes off the final two deliveries to finish on 31* off just 10 balls that helped Emirates breach 180.

Brief scores: MI Emirates 185/8 in 20 overs (Muhammad Waseem 39, Jonny Bairstow 37; Adil Rashid 3/32) beat Sharjah Warriorz 181/7 in 20 overs (Sikandar Raza 64; AM Ghazanfar 2/21) by 4 runs