Umm Al Quwain: Jotun Paints cricket team players, trying to beat the heat with sunscreen lotion and gulping water during every break, defeated What's On to lift the second Umm Al Quwain Junior Twenty20 league at the Umm Al Quwain ground last weekend,
The organisers of cricket in Umm Al Quwain have refused to yield to the scorching summer heat.
"We have five more tournaments to complete and they are all in the knockout stage. We will be completing these tournaments in the next two weeks," said Mushtaq Ahmad, the chief organiser.
"Our ground is located near a beach and hence it is not as hot as it is in other emirates. In all other places it is hard to stage cricket after May but we can go on to stage matches till July end," he told Gulf News.
Two matches are held every day.
"We make sure that our first match starts at 7am and ends by 10am and then once the heat subsides we start our second match at 3pm. We provide a special drinks break during the matches. Cricketers from all over the UAE enjoy driving down here to play here," said Amhad, who stages over ten tournaments every season.
In the Twenty20 final, Jotun Paints' Bilal Murtaza hogged the limelight with a breezy 85 off just 45 balls, studded with seven sixes and an equal number of boundaries to help his team reach the target of 116 runs set by What's On by nine wickets. Murtaza got good support from Nitin who hit a quick 30 with one six and three boundaries.
Earlier in the semifinals, What's On beat Century XI by seven wickets while Azhar's 126 helped Jotun Paints get the better of the Sharjah Eagles by 96 runs.
