Four months after the ugly Asia Cup handshake furore at the same venue, a side wearing green, including four Pakistan internationals and another player of Pakistan-origin, tasted long awaited success at Dubai International Stadium.
The Desert Vipers do not actually have an official link up with Pakistan. They are, though, the only non-Indian owned of the six franchises in the DP World International League T20.
To say they have benefitted from being able to scoop up a raft of highly talented Pakistani players is understating the point, though.
While the other sides steered clear, the Vipers hoovered talent from Pakistan ahead of this campaign. What followed has been a season of triumph.
They topped the league phase. They crushed MI Emirates in the qualifier play-off to reach the final. Once there, they then repeated the trick against the same opposition, to apply the exclamation mark to a glorious campaign.
In the final, Pakistani nationals took all of the first six wickets to fall. That was three for Naseem Shah, two for Usman Tariq, plus one for Khuzaima Tanveer, the Pakistan-born fast bowler who aspires to represent the UAE. Plus Hassan Nawaz took two excellent catches, just for good measure.
By that stage, the inscribers might as well have got to work writing the Vipers name on the trophy for the first time. It was the third time they had made a final. This time, they were not to be denied.
Avram Glazer, the Vipers owner, was there to see it all. The American businessman opted for a trip to Dubai for this fixture rather than Leeds, where Manchester United – another sports club in his portfolio - had been in action on the same day in English football’s Premier League.
There were plenty of other high rollers among the 22,137 crowd, too. It included Akash Ambani, who has long been used to success all over the world with the various guises of his Mumbai Indians sides. This time, he was to be disappointed.
MI had the advantage of winning the toss, but that was more or less where their joy started and ended.
Kieron Pollard was forced to call his players into a huddle just two overs into the game. The MI captain appeared to be fuming over the tattiness of their start in the field, and was demanding they sharpen up.
Two balls later, AM Ghazanfar let a ball through him to the boundary. A couple after that, Mohammed Rohid fired a wide down the leg side. Another followed.
Rohid’s over ended up costing MI 15 runs, taking the Vipers to 34 for no loss after three, and Pollard’s mood fully reflected the scoreboard.
Fazalhaq Farooqi did his best to lift the gloom. The Afghan left-arm quick has been the leading bowler in this competition’s history, and he picked a good moment to show his best.
In the fourth over, he dismissed each of the Vipers openers, Jason Roy and Fakhar Zaman, four balls apart.
The double strike brought Sam Curran to the wicket. The Vipers captain set about repairing the damage, and he did so in fine style.
He shared in stands worth 89 with Max Holden and 57 with Dan Lawrence, and finished 74 not out at the end of the innings.
After his one profligate over near the start of the innings, Rohid – the UAE bowler for whom MI paid $140,000 at auction – wasn’t risked again until the last over. He did far better then, keeping the batters from reaching the boundary once.
It meant MI would require 183 to win, which would have been the largest successful chase at Dubai International Stadium during this year’s competition.
They got nowhere near. With the Pakistani pacers leading the onslaught, MI crumbled to 136 all out within 18.3 overs, as the Vipers won by 46 runs.
Pacer Naseem finished with superb figures of 3-18 while off-spinner Tariq picked up 2-20.
