Dubai: The UAE selection which participated in the inaugural 2X Cricket Cup in Houston, Texas in United States of America, dished out a solid performance to reach the semi-final of the tournament.
Khurram Khan, the architect of many UAE victories, has helped assemble the Danube UAE Falcons with players from the UAE, Oman, Afghanistan and Canada to play in this tournament which had a unique format of each teams playing two innings of 10 overs each.
In the semi-finals, UAE Falcons was stopped by Houston Sparks. The Falcons, led by UAE national team captain Amjad Javed, had earlier stunned star studded Montgomery Sports from England by four wickets to enter semi-final.
Speaking to Gulf News from Texas, Khurram Khan said: “It was creditable to beat Montgomery team which had players like Test star Abdul Razzaq and many top Nottinghamshire County team. Chasing a target of 201, Zeeshan Maqsood from Oman cracked an unbeaten 124 for us to ensure the win.”
UAE fought brilliantly against star studded Houston Sparks too which had six Pakistan international players. “Houston had players like Kamran Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, Asad Ali, Shahzaib Hassan and Muhammad Khalil. We still fought hard.”
UAE Falcon’s Zeeshan won the best batsman of the tournament award scoring 265 runs with a century and two fifties. UAE players Vikrant Shetty had hit a half century and skipper Javed had cracked an unbeaten 45 in just three overs in this tournament.
In the final, Paras Khadka led Nepal Rhinos emerged as the champions defeating Houston.
The eight-team tournament saw Florida Underdogs, along with UAE Falcons, reach the semi-final. In the semi-final, the UAE Falcons posted 92 runs in the first innings and restricted Houston to 95. In the second innings, UAE posted 118 but Houston won by seven wickets through a strong partnership from Nayyar Abbas’s unbeaten 80 runs.
