Dubai: The Indian Consulate cricket team became the inaugural champions of the Danube Diplomat Cup by beating the Pakistan Consulate in a keenly fought final in front of hundreds of supporters at the Insportz indoor stadium on Friday.
The two neighbours produced some exhilarating cricket to round off the Danube Group-organised tournament that involved eight consulate teams — the others being Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka.
The final saw a spectacular turnaround from India, who lost to Pakistan in the league round, inspired by Consul General Sanjay Verma.
After electing to bat, India’s openers Arif and Kamal gave their team a good start by scoring 14 runs in two overs. But Pakistan kept the second pair of Anwar and Rajesh and the last pair Dinesh and Ganesh in check to restrict them to -14. At the end of their eight overs, India mustered two runs.
Pakistan got off to a bad start, with first pair Tahir and Mohsin slipping to a disastrous -20 with Anwar taking three wickets in the second over. The second pair made it -2 at the end of four overs. The third pair of Faizan and Bahad scored eight, leaving the last pair 17 to win, but they recorded only -6 and Pakistan ended up on -20.
Bangladesh won the Plate event after beating Great Britain by 10 runs.
Former India captain and Danube brand ambassador Sunil Gavaskar gave away the trophy. He said: “Cricket is a vehicle which has helped break down many barriers and such tournaments will foster friendship among countries.”
Anis Sajan, Managing Director of Danube Group, announced that the tournament would become an annual event.