Dubai: Ambey Parwatkar and Shiva Pagarani carried their experience into the final of the Dubai Cricket Council’s Ramadan League at the Sevens Cricket grounds to ensure Dubai Mammoths emerge as the champions. Sharing two wickets each along with Sameer Khan, they restricted Mavericks Cricket Club to 147 for 8.
Dubai Mammoths batsmen too rose to challenge though they stuttered in their chase through Shadab Khan (45), Qais Farooq (38) and Abid Chaudhury (27 not out) to win with four overs to spare.
Mavericks, who won the toss and elected to bat, kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Except for Gifsun D’Souza (56) at the top and No. 8 batsman Victor D’Souza (32), all the other struggled to get into double figures. Parwatkar, who played for Goa in Ranji Trophy, used his accurate spin along while Pagarani, who was born and brought up in UAE, had played his cricket always in wickets here. It was Sameer gave the early breakthrough with two wickets, while Pagarani and Parwatkar ran through the rest of the batting.
Despite wickets falling at the other end, Gifsun fought valiantly and went on to reach his half-century before falling to Ajay Joshi, who finished the tournament with 15 wickets from five matches to be adjudged the Player of the Tournament.
Dubai Mammoths’ chase began poorly with Nasir Hussain taking the wickets of Ranjeet Chavan, Lucky Abbas and Javed Siddique. And when Aslam Shahzad removed Ambey Parwatkar it looked like Mavericks sailing towards a victory till Shadab Khan took charge and hit 45 from 31 balls with three sixes and one boundary. Qais Farooq hit 38 from 44 balls with three boundaries and put on put on an invaluable 85-run partnership with Khan. Though Khan and Farooq fell quickly, Abid Chaudhury blasted 27 from just 16 balls with five boundaries to ensure Mammoths reached the target.
Brief scores:
Dubai Mammoths bt Mavericks CC by 4 wkts. Mavericks 147 for 8 in 25 overs (Gifsun D’Souza 56, Victor D’Souza 32; Sameer A Khan 2 for 30, Ambey Parwatkar 2 for 20, Shiva Pagarani 2 for 28) Dubai Mammoths 150 for 6 in 21 overs (Shadab Khan 45, Qais Farooq 38, Abid Chaudhury 27 n.o.; Nasir Hussain 3 for 31). Man of the match: Ambey Parwatkar.
Other awards: Best batsman: Syed Haider of Mideast Metals (4 matches, 312 runs); Best bowler: Ajay Joshi of Dubai Mammoths (5 matches, 15 wickets); Player of the Tournament: Ali Anwar of Mideast Metals (5 matches, 225 runs and 9 wickets).
