Dubai: Arab Unity emerged as the champions of the CSS Homeward Bound Inter-School Cricket Championship defeating GEMS Modern Academy by 36 runs at the Fair Grounds of the Dubai Men’s College on Sunday. This tournament, staged after six years because of Dubai Cricket Council’s shortage of grounds, was a huge success with 10 top UAE schools competing in the event and threw up many a exciting talent.
Iritza Ali, the hero of the final, cracked a half century and took three wickets to bag the prestigious Man of the Final award. This tournament was played in traditional whites and red ball.
Speaking to Gulf News, Shiva Paragrani of Dubai Cricket Council said: “We wanted young cricketers to get a feel of traditional cricket and we insisted that the whole tournament is played in traditional whites and red ball. Though it took us six years to host the tournament again we have already planned to stage the next edition in October. This tournament will be a permanent fixture of Dubai’s cricket calendar.
This year the tournament was supported by Smart Bag, Petrotek, MyCricket.ae and AreaSqft.com, and the organisers are expecting bigger support for next edition.
Batting first, Arab Unity lost opener Huzaifa Nadeem for six runs but Irtiza and Ramal Perera steadied the innings with a crucial 46-run partnership for the second wicket. After Ramal fell for 17, Ranul Perera joined Irtiza and put on another 46-run partnership with Ranul hitting 30 runs from 38 balls before losing his wicket. Irtiza then took full charge and raced to his half century with six hits to the boundary. With support from Salah Shakeel (17) and Arsalan Sharif (18) Irtiza scored 52 and steered his team to 159 for 6 from their 30 overs.
Though it wasn’t a tough total to chase, GEMS top five batsmen were back in the pavilion without reaching double figures. Ammar Fayyaz picked two early wickets but No.8 batsman Aditya Mysore highlighted the importance of staying at the wicket cracking 54 runs from 62 balls with seven boundaries. Sushain Thapar too hit 19 runs but fell at a time when it looked like GEMS could reach the total.
