Dubai: Shiva Pagarani, drawing on his years of experience, bowled Dubai Mammoths to a 65-run victory over Mavericks Cricket Club in the final of the Dubai Cricket Council-Mavericks Ring of Fire T20 cricket tournament at the Dubai International Stadium.
Captaining the Dubai Mammoths team, he produced a spell of 4-0-16-4 to bowl out Mavericks for a paltry 87. Batting first, Mammoths had posted a challenging 152 for 8 in 20 overs.
Speaking to Gulf News after the match-winning performance, Pagarani said: “Years of playing has helped and the match proved that there is still the few off-breaks with me that can get wickets.”
Pagarani, soon after the final, left for UK with the Dubai Sindhis team. Pagarani as an official of DCC and organiser of the veteran tournaments plays regularly despite being in his forties.
The six-team league was organised by Mavericks. In fact, after the title match, many were left wondering if the Mavericks had paid the prize for not opting to bat after winning the toss, a decision that evoked comparisons to the Chennai Super Kings in the recently concluded Indian Premier League final.
The Mavericks had also lost to Mammoths in the league stage but the pressure of chasing in a final showed on them with three of their batsmen failing to open their accounts, while another three ran themselves out.
Pagarani was well supported by Ambey Parwatkar who took two wickets for 17 runs.
Atiq Mahmoud of Dubai Mammoths with 237 runs in five matches won the best batsman award while the best bowler award went to Sugeesha Dinushan of Darjeeling CC with 11 wickets in five matches. Mohammad Rumman of Mavericks CC with 227 runs and six wickets in five matches won the player of tournament award.
In another Dubai Cricket Council tournament, Globelink West Star Shipping will take on Interface in the final of the Power Horse T20 – 2015 cricket tournament at the Fair Ground Oval in Dubai Men’s College at the Academic City.
In the semi-finals, Interface and Globelink registered contrasting victories. Interface defeated Fly Emirates by eight wickets while Globelink recorded an closely fought two-wicket win over Gourmet.
In the first semi-finals, Gourmet started badly, losing two wickets before the score had reached double figures. Usman Mushtaq (26) and Asghar Butt (12) helped Gourmet recover but they then slipped to 69 for six. Bilal Chima remained unbeaten on 41 facing 28 deliveries hitting four boundaries and two sixes to help Gourmet score 149 for 9. Globe Link reached the target for the loss of eight wickets with one ball to spare thanks to UAE player Rohan Mustafa’s 56 runs.
In Interface’s win over Fly Emirates, the star performer was Fahad Tariq who hit an unbeaten 83.
