Watch: Desert Vipers captain Colin Munro shows great sportsmanship to call back his Kiwi Teammate Martin Guptill

Desert Vipers skipper Colin Munro was in the thick of things in their match against Sharjah Warriors in Sharjah on Sunday, January 28. The Vipers lost the game in the end by 7 runs but Colin Munro won many hearts.

Batting first the Sharjah Warriors scored a competitive 174/7 in their 20 overs. Skipper Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored 68 after the openers fell cheaply. Martin Guptill scored 39 while Joe Denly scored 22 off 24 balls.

During the 26-run stand between Dely and Guptill, the England batter struck one hard to Guptill’s right hand. The ball after hitting Guptill’s hand came towards Shadab who took the bails off catching the Kiwi batter unaware of the fact that he was out of the crease. Azam Khan, the Desert Vipers keeper kept saying “out karde, out karde. out karde” to keep Shadab alive to the fact that he can run out Guptill.

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Meanwhile, Guptill was wincing in pain as Munto decided to call him back and show great sportsman spirit. The action was called by commentator Alan Wilkins who narrated the entire scene and also lauded Munto for his great sportsmanship act.

Watch: Colin Munro Shows Sportsmanship To Call Back Martin Guptill

A fine gesture by Colin Munro and the Desert Vipers team 👌 #ILT20

(via @ILT20Official) pic.twitter.com/vR0xIBpxYo

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) January 29, 2024

The desert Vipesr skipper was dismissed unfortunately for a duck in the 175-run chase. Alex Hales scored 61 while Azam Khan scored 35 in the run-chase as the Vipers fell short by seven runs. Chris Woakes and Daniel Sams took two wickets each for the Warriors. Meanwhile for the Vipers, Sri Lankan T20I skipper Wanindu Hasaranga soun around his magic and took 3/30. Luke Wood, the England pacer took 3/34 while Shaheen Afridi took one.

The Vipers needed 16 runs to win off the final over which was bowled by Muhammad Jawadullah. He kept a cool head and gave away just eight runs as the Warriors won the game by seven runs and notched up their second win of the campaign.

The table is led by MI Emirates who have won four out of their five games. Dubai Capitals and Gulf Giants are placed on four points each with two wins and two losses. The Abu Dhabi Knight Riders are placed fourth with two wins and three losses in five games. The Warriors are placed fifth with two wins and two losses as well from four games. The Vipers who are the defending champions of the title are languishing at the bottom of the points table with just one win from four matches.

The bottom three teams, the Knight Riders, the Warriors, and the Vipers have their NRRs in the negative and have too much to do in their remaining league matches. Every team plays 10 league games and have almost made it through to the halfway mark. The top four teams make the knockouts with the top two playing the final on February 17.

“Disappointed. We put them to bat and to have them at 130 after 10-12 overs, we are always playing catch up. I think we batted well in the chase but slipped up at important moments. Not too worried about the dropped catches, we were sloppy but we will assess this. We wanted Luke Wood from the start, but with Shaheen and Amir it was tough. But today he showed what he can bring to this side. We’re mentally prepared, if we execute our skills better we will be good” said Desert Vipers skipper Colin Muntro after the team suffered their third loss of the campaign.

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