Alex Hales continues golden run as Desert Vipers win again

The England opener has now made fifty-plus scores in all five innings for Desert Vipers

Abu Dhabi: MI Emirates 169-5, Desert Vipers 170-3 - Desert Vipers win by seven wickets

Scorecard

Desert Vipers returned to winning ways against MI Emirates after suffering their first defeat last time out against Gulf Giants.

Alex Hales, the ILT20's leading run-scorer, once again made the most of his excellent form.

He went to his fifth consecutive score of fifty-plus – a streak that also includes a century against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders and 99 against Gulf Giants – by pulling Trent Boult for successive fours as Vipers chased down a 170-run target with ample time to spare.

The England opener was nowhere near his best at times, but that mattered little, with Colin Munro (41) and Sherfane Rutherford (56*) playing rapid cameos that allowed Hales to anchor the chase at first before lighting up towards its end.

Earlier, MI Emirates had given themselves a chance thanks to half centuries from former West Indies white-ball captains Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard, but MI suffered their second straight loss, having started the tournament with three wins on the bounce.

^{Kieron Pollard's half century was in vain (Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images)}

Pollard top-scored with an unbeaten 67 off just 39 balls – a knock featuring six of the eight sixes struck in MI's innings – while Pooran made 57 before being bowled by a superb Tom Curran yorker that went through his legs and thudded into leg-stump.

That partnership – worth 116 runs in 11.3 overs – came after Muhammad Waseem and Vriitya Aravind, the UAE youngster who replaced Will Smeed in the side, both fell inside the game's first 13 deliveries.

Gus Atkinson cleaned up Aravind with a ball that nipped in, before Sheldon Cottrell slanted one across Waseem who edged behind. Andre Fletcher was superbly run out from backward point by Wanindu Hasaranga, before the Pollard-Pooran axis took over.

They would have been hopeful of defending the total given to them by the big-hitting pair, but Hales once again made light work of the task at hand.

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