Sharjah: Backed by drum beats and cheered on by thousands of Keralites, the Kings became the first team to reach the final of the Heera Group T10 Cricket League at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
They defeated Maratha Arabians by five wickets with five balls to spare.
Restricting Maratha Arabians to 97 for nine, Kerala skipper and England captain Eoin Morgan steered the team to victory scoring 53 runs off 32 balls with four boundaries and as many sixes.
UAE skipper Rohan Mustafa hit the winning boundary after Kerala lost four wickets in a heap towards the end.
Earlier, Pakistan left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir wrecked Maratha with a three-wicket spell backed by Liam Plunkett and Rayad Emrit with two wickets each
West Indies’ Dwayne Bravo. who two days back had remarked: “I have been dropped from the West Indies team and I don’t think now, at 34, it would make any sense coming back.”
But he showed that he still has the form in him by top scoring for Maratha with 27 runs off 19 balls with three sixes and a boundary.
Kerala won the toss and their supporters got everything they asked for from the first over.
Their opening bowler clean bowled Maratha Arabians opener Alex Hales with the second delivery for a duck. In form Rilee Rossouw produced a flowing cover drive off the first ball he faced from Tanvir but perished to the last ball of that over top edging to square leg.
More disaster followed for Maratha when England pacer Liam Plunkett had Ross Whiteley edge to wicketkeeper Nicolas Pooran for six runs.
Of the last ball Plunkett, had Asghar Stanikzai cut to third man and Mustafa took a good catch.
Half the Maratha side were back in the pavilion for 29 runs when Roelof van der Merwe got clean bowled to a Rayad Emrit delivery for two.
Wahab Riaz made Kamran Akmal edge to wicketkeeper for nine for the worst start in this tournament. At the half way stage of their innings Maratha were 33 for six.
Two consecutive sixes from Dwayne Bravo off Kieron Pollard came as a relief for Maratha. The first six was pulled to midwicket and second scooped over third man. In the same over skipper Imad Wasim hit Pollard for the third six of the over. Maratha Arabians picked 21 runs off the over.
In the seventh over, Bravo hit Plunkett to midwicket for his third six and with Imad took 16 runs from the over. Tanvir who was introduced for his second over ended Imad’s innings by having him caught at long on for 18.
Emrit yorked Bravo to dismiss him at 27.
Kerala Kings opener Chadwick Walton went for his shots right away and hit Imad Wasim for a four and two sixes but fell to the last ball of the first over.
Morgan thrashed Mohammad Sami for two sixes and two fours in one over to take 23 runs from the second over.
Brief score:
Kerala Kings bt Maratha Arabians by five wickets
Maratha Arabians 97 for 9 in 10 overs (Dwayne Bravo 27, Sohail Tanvir 3 for 12, Liam Plunkett 2 for 28, Rayad Emrit 2 for 16) Kerala Kings 98 for 5 in 9.1 overs (Eoin Morgan 53)
