Sherfane Rutherford’s heroics played a significant role in helping the Desert Vipers make their first-ever appearance in an ILT20 final on Wednesday.

After suffering a painful hamstring injury that forced him to leave the field, the Guyanese batsman returned to rescue his team smashing 37 off 19 deliveries including three consecutive sixes off David Wiese.

His heroics would help propel Desert Vipers to 178-7, which proved to be enough as the Vipers dismissed Gulf Giants for 159 in 19.4 overs.

During an interview on the Vipers Voices Podcast afterwards, Rutherford said he knew it was going to be his last game but he wanted to make an impact on the game and help his team.

“It was my idea (to go back out and bat). When I went in (after being injured), I asked my physio if I could go back and bat. He said no and that it was better I just relax,” he explained.

“I told him I could do it, and then he said he was going to discuss it with the coach. At that time Tom Moody was passing by and he said, ‘If he (Rutherford) wants to bat, let us trust him.’ I also knew it was going to be my last game (in the tournament) and I wanted to give it my all, and hopefully I could make an impact for the team.”

After arriving at the crease, he revealed his intentions to Tom Curran, his partner with whom he put on 52 runs which ultimately changed the direction of the match.

 “I knew I could not run, so I said (to Tom Curran) that I was going to try and get boundaries. So, I think that’s where we won the game,” Rutherford said.

The Desert Vipers are through to the first-ever final of the DP World ILT20 after a sensational 19-run win over the Gulf Giants at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday. This was the Vipers’ first victory over the Giants in the tournament, having lost their two previous contests. 

Batting first Desert Vipers made 178-7 from their 20 overs before restricting the Gulf Giants to 159 all out off 19.4 overs.

Put into bat, the Vipers had a shaky start, losing their first three wickets for just 33 runs but they recovered to post a winning score in large part due to the heroics of Sherfane Rutherford, who returned to the field despite a painful hamstring injury to score 37 off 19 deliveries including three consecutive sixes off David Wiese.

Tom Curran shared a 52-run partnership with Rutherford, contributing a valuable 29 runs, and he took four wickets as well, earning him the Player of the Match award.

“Rutherford is in a bit of pain with his injury. Not sure how long he will be out for with his injury. I didn’t expect him to come back on the field like he did to be honest. But he showed great courage, and I think it is the environment we have created within the Desert Vipers, that (makes) people want to go out and perform for the team,” said team captain Colin Munro.

“The courage he showed to come out and bat on one leg was the turning point of the game. He hit the ball beautifully and changed the whole momentum of the game and put us in the driver’s seat. That was a great knock from him.”

 Munro also praised Curran and Wanindu Hasaranga for the impact they had on the match.

 “I think Tom Curran is a genuine all-rounder now. He used to be a bowler who could also bat at around number eight, but since coming into the Vipers he has been given the chance to go in at six and seven and show what he can do,” Munro said.

 “Hasaranga is a world class player, and he is up (the top) in the ICC T20 rankings, and he was in the (ICC T20 Men’s) Team of the Year. He was outstanding and to get those three wickets, (they) really put inroads in (the Gulf Giants batting line-up).

“They (Gulf Giants) got off to a really good start in the power play through James Vince and Chris Lynn.  I think the way Hasaranga came out and got a wicket in his first over put them under pressure, while also getting the run rate going up. This allowed our bowlers to settle in and use what the pitch had to offer.

 “We came here to qualify, number one, and once we got into the finals, it was about putting our best foot forward to make it to the final. Now we are there, and our next goal is to lift that trophy.”

Naturally, Head Coach James Foster was delighted with the performance and the outcome.

 “I am really chuffed for the whole team. I think they fought really hard throughout this campaign. I thought we had to show a lot of fight today, and a lot of character,” he said while speaking on the Vipers Voices podcast.

“After a positive start, we were three down for not too many (runs), and I thought Ronnie (Rohan Mustafa) got us off to a flyer but the brakes were put on us, and then we had to absorb a lot of pressure.

 “The partnership between Sam Billings and Wanindu Hasaranga was huge in the context of the game. They had to rebuild, but also had to show intent and keep that scoreboard ticking.”

He, too, was full of praise for Rutherford.

 “When Rutherford came out and then pulled up with that hamstring injury, you thought the worst. But the fact that he was happy to go back out there (was great for the team). It was his idea and his thought, and he was really keen,” he said.

“So at the drop of the next wicket he went out there and that was some unbelievable ball-striking, bearing in mind he was on one leg. To hit the ball in the areas that he did, with the power that he possesses, which we have seen throughout this campaign, came to fruition tonight.

 “What a platform the ILT20 is to showcase what Rutherford can do. I am really pleased for him, he is such a top man, such a nice guy and so humble. In the same breath (I am) devastated for him, about picking up an injury.”

Unbeaten half-centuries from Alex Hales and Sherfane Rutherford led the Desert Vipers to a comfortable seven-wicket win over the MI Emirates in their DP World IL T20 fixture at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

The Emirates’ innings got off to the worst possible start with openers Muhammad Wasim (5) and Vritiya Aravind (3) being removed within the first three overs after the Vipers won the toss and elected to field first.

Grenadian Andre Fletcher and former West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran then combined to put on 43 for the third wicket before Fletcher fell in the ninth over for 21 to leave them 53-3.

Captain Kieron Pollard then joined Pooran at the crease and the pair batted excellently, eventually bringing up their 100-run partnership in the 19^th over, the same over which saw Pooran bring up a well-compiled 50.

Pollard brought up his 50, his second in a row, in the previous over with a trademark straight six.

The partnership reached 116 when Pooran was finally dismissed, bowled by Tom Curran in the final over for 57.

In the end, the Emirates closed their innings 169-5 off 20 overs with Pollard not out on 67 from 39 balls including one boundary and six sixes.

The Vipers chase was rocked early when Trent Boult removed Rohan Mustafa for one in the first over to bring captain Collin Munro to the crease.

Hales and Munro put on a partnership before Munro was removed by a spectacular catch from Kieron Pollard for 41 in the eighth over.

One brought two for the Emirates as Samit Patel got his second wicket in the over, removing Sam Billings for just one to leave the Vipers 76-3 bringing Sherfane Rutherford to the crease.

At the halfway stage of the chase, the Vipers were 101-3 with Hales (34) and Rutherford (18) going smoothly.

The pair continued along and Hales brought up his fifth score of 50+ in a row in the 15^th over before a single in the 16^th over brought up Rutherford’s 50 off just 26 balls.

The match was ended in the 17^th over when Rutherford hit a boundary and then a single to lead the Vipers to their fourth win in five games.

Hales ended up unbeaten on 62 from 44 balls while Rutherford faced 29 balls for his 56. Hales’ knock included six fours and two sixes while Rutherford hit four fours and three sixes.

Scores: MI Emirates 169-5 from 20 overs, Desert Vipers 170-3 from 17.3 overs.

An aggressive half-century from Shimron Hetmyer helped propel Gulf Giants to a five-wicket victory over Desert Vipers in the ILT20 league in Dubai on Sunday.

Hetmyer scored 70 from just 35 balls as Gulf Giants scored 196-5 to win with three balls to spare. Despite the impressive knock from the Guyanese batsman, he did not do it alone as Chris Lynn was equally impressive scoring 71 from 42 balls in the winning effort.

Lynn and Hetmyer’s partnership of 117 from 56 balls helped get Gulf Giants’ chase back on track after they had lost Tom Banton, James Vince and Rehan Amhed for three, four and one, respectively, with only 30 runs on the board.

Hetmyer was eventually dismissed in the 14^th over having hit five sixes and five fours. Lynn fell in the 17^th leaving the dependable David Weise and Liam Dawson to take the Giants to victory.

Weise was unbeaten on 22 from 19 balls while Dawson was not out on 16 from just nine balls in the end.

Sheldon Cottrell was the best of the Vipers’ bowlers with 2-24 from his four overs.

Earlier, Vipers owed their challenging total to Alex Hales 99 from just 57 balls. He hit 10 fours and five sixes in his knock and got support from Colin Munro, who scored 39 from 23 balls and Sherfane Rutherford, who contributed 27 from 15 balls as Desert Vipers scored 195-4 from their allotment.

It proved to be a tough target but one that Hetmyer and Lynn were able to achieve.

St Kitts & Nevis Patriots secured a seven-run win over the Trinbago Knight Riders to stay in contention for a 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) play-off spot on Thursday.

St Kitts & Nevis Patriots won the toss and chose to bat in this must-win game, but were restricted early on as the Knight Riders rotated five bowlers across the powerplay. Sherfane Rutherford would change the complexion of the innings with a brilliant 78 runs, aided by a spectacular cameo from Dewald Brevis, to take the Patriots to 163-6. 

In their chase, the Trinbago Knight Riders struggled to build partnerships as wickets consistently fell. Despite this, they remained with a chance of winning the match as Tim Seifert and Andre Russell scored crucial late runs, but it proved to be in vain as they could only muster 156-7, losing by seven runs. 

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were frustrated by the bowling of the Knight Riders in the first 10 overs, reaching 43-3 and having lost the key wicket of Evin Lewis. Rutherford would then shoulder the responsibility of carrying the innings as he patiently scored runs before accelerating in the last three overs, to finish on 78 runs. Brevis would remarkably score 30 runs from just six balls, constantly clearing the boundary to propel the Patriots to 163-6. 

 Trinbago Knight Riders lost the early wickets of Leonardo Julien and Colin Munro in their chase, with spinners Kevin Sinclair and Rashid Khan restricting runs. Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran would then lose their wickets as the Knight Riders found themselves in serious trouble.

Seifert kept the chase alive with a valiant half-century. Despite Russell scoring 18 runs in the 19th over, it was not to be enough as Sheldon Cottrell delivered a composed final over to take the Patriots to victory..

Scores: St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 163-6 (Rutherford 78, Brevis 30*; Dupavillon 3-38, Patel 1-7) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 156-7 (Seifert 59, Pollard 31; Cottrell 3-33, Sinclair 2-18) by seven runs.

A new look Jamaica Tallawahs got their 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) campaign off to a winning start with a 47-run victory over the defending champions, St Kitts & Nevis Patriots.

Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Nicholas Pooran are the latest big names from the Caribbean to sign up for the UAE's International League T20 (ILT20).

They join the likes of Andre Fletcher, Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Rovman Powell, Akeal Hosein, Raymon Reifer, Sherfane Rutherford, Ravi Rampaul, Kennar Lewis and Dominic Drakes as West Indians participating in the inaugural edition of the tournament.

Other big names participating include England's Moeen Ali and Alex Hales as well as Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.

The ILT20 is set to begin in January next year in the UAE and is competing with South Africa's T20 League for players. There will be six franchises consisting of 18 players each.

The 2023 edition of the ILT20 will have 34 matches. All the teams will play each other twice, before four playoffs, including the final, spread across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

In January, after Romario Shepherd smashed an unbeaten 44 from just 28 balls to take the West Indies within one run of England’s total of 171, he revealed that he hoped his heroics would get him noticed for the upcoming IPL Mega Auction that was held this weekend.

For the past three years, Shepherd had registered for the draft in the richest T20 league in the world but there were no takers. However, he never gave up hope.

"Eventually, if an IPL contract comes, that would be great for me. I'm not saying that I don't think about it - I do think about it, but I try not to think about it during a game,” he said then.

"It's a great platform. For any youngster, it's their dream to go to the IPL and I'm no different. I'm trying my best to get myself in there. It's something that I've dreamed about for a very long time. My name was in the [auction] for the last three years, so this year, I'm looking forward to it."

That dream became reality on Sunday when during the second day of the auction, he was sold to the Sunrisers Hyderabad for a whopping US$1.03 million dollars.

His was the highest bid for a West Indies player on the second day when several Caribbean players were the beneficiaries of six-figure contracts for the 2022 season of the Indian Premier League.

The big-hitting allrounder Odean Smith, who also made an impression during the series against England, was sold to the Punjab Kings for approximately US$798,000 while Rovman Powell was sold to the Delhi Capitals for US$345,000.

Evin Lewis, who missed the series was sold to the Lucknow Super Giants for US$266,000. Dominic Drakes was told to the Gujarat Titans for US$146,000 and Sherfane Rutherford will join the Royal Challengers Bangalore for US$133,000.

Fabian Allen went for US$99,000 to the Mumbai Indians.

West Indian batsman Sherfane Rutherford’s Peshawar Zalmi got their second win in the 2022 Pakistan Super League (PSL) with a nine-run victory over the Karachi Kings in Karachi Friday.

The Kings, led by the number-one-ranked T20 batsman in the world Babar Azam, won the toss and chose to field.

Peshawar posted 173-4 off their 20 overs thanks to a top score of 52 not out off 28 balls from Captain Shoaib Malik that included five fours and two sixes.

Afghanistan power hitter Hazratullah Zazai contributed a 27-ball 41 at the top of the innings while Rutherford ended not out on nine from four balls with one six.

Umaid Asif was the best bowler for the Kings with 3-36 from four overs.

Despite a well-compiled 90 not out off 63 balls from Azam, the Kings ended agonizingly short of their target finishing 164-6 off their 20 overs.

Babar’s knock included 12 fours and one six while Englishman Ian Cockbain was the next best contributor with 31 from 19 balls.

Mohammad Umar was the pick of the Zalmi bowlers with 3-22 from his four overs.

Peshawar Zalmi are now fourth in the points table with four points while the Karachi Kings have yet to register a point after registering their fourth loss in as many games.

Sherfane Rutherford’s Peshawar Zalmi secured a five-wicket win over the Quetta Gladiators in their first game of the 2022 Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Karachi today.

Zalmi won the toss and elected to field first but were left to regret that decision when Quetta openers Ahsan Ali and Will Smeed put on a massive 155-run partnership for the first wicket before Ali was dismissed for 73 in the 16^th over.

Smeed, a 20-year-old Englishman, was eventually dismissed for 97, in the final over, to see the Gladiators finish with a formidable 190-4 off their 20 overs.

Smeed’s 97 came off 62 balls with 11 fours and four sixes.

Pakistani Usman Qadir was the best bowler for Zalmi with 2-20 off his four overs.

Openers Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Yasir Khan put on 43 for the first wicket before Khan was dismissed in the fourth over for 30 off 12 balls.

Kohler-Cadmore was next to go for 22 to leave the Zalmi 62-2.

Jamaica Tallawahs batsman Haider Ali also contributed 19 before the chase was spearheaded by Hussain Talat and captain Shoaib Malik with scores of 52 off 29 balls and 48 not out off 32 balls, respectively.

Rutherford also contributed 10 runs off nine balls to put them on the brink of victory, being dismissed in the final over with three runs to win.

Malik then hit the winning runs to close the innings on 191-5.

Mohammed Nawaz took 3-44 from four overs for the Gladiators.

The 2022 PSL started yesterday with the Multan Sultans beating the Karachi Kings by seven wickets.

Andre Russell crowned himself 2021 Abu Dhabi T10 champion after he produced an electrifying Man-of-the-Match performance to lead the Deccan Gladiators to a 56-run win over the Delhi Bulls on Saturday.

Andre Russell and Odean Smith starred with both bat and ball as the Deccan Gladiators defeated Dwayne Bravos’s Delhi Bulls by 17 runs in the first qualifier of the Abu Dhabi T10 on Friday.

In-form T20 batsman Sherfane Rutherford has returned home to his native Guyana from the IPL following the death of his father, the Sunrisers Hyderabad Indian Premier League franchise announced on Thursday.

Orin Rutherford, 58, died Thursday, after testing positive for the Covid-19 virus on September 5. He was being treated at the Intensive Care Unit of the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Liliendaal Hospital in Georgetown. He was reportedly unvaccinated.

"The SRH family conveys its heartfelt condolences to Sherfane Rutherford and his family on the passing away of his father. Sherfane will be leaving the IPL bio-bubble to be with his family in this difficult hour," SRH posted on Twitter.

Following a successful season with newly-crowned Caribbean Premier League champions St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Rutherford was looking forward to his maiden season with SRH.

It always feels good to come to a new franchise. It’s always good coming to something new. I look to learn, gather as much information as I can to work on my game and in the best way I can to help the team,” he said shortly after his arrival in India.

Rutherford, who almost inexplicably missed on being selected to represent the West Indies at next month’s ICC T20 World Cup, was called up by SRH to replace England’s Jonny Bairstow.

He last played in the IPL for Delhi Capitals in 2019.