Al Khubairat School win under-16 title by 9 wickets

Abu Dhabi:  The British School-Al Khubairat turned in a professional display to win the Lifebuoy Abu Dhabi Inter-School Under-16 cricket title by a nine-wicket margin over Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Pakistan School.

In what turned out to be a one-sided final, Pakistan School scored 180 in 24.2 overs and in reply, the British School cruised home losing just one wicket for a comprehensive title triumph.

Luc Jones, a consistent performer, once again starred to score a half century with eight boundaries while skipper Uzair Khan remained unbeaten on 67 with nine fours to help British School finish on 181 for one in just 19.2 overs. The wayward bowling of Pakistan School yielded 59 extras, 55 of them coming off wides!

Performers

Earlier Luc Jones picked up three for 18 including the prized wickets of Ahmad Yousuf and Wajid Khan. The two came together at 85 for 6 and put up 82 runs for the seventh wicket before Jones bowled Yousuf for 42 and dealt a similar blow to Khan (34). Skipper Ekram Al Deen (25) and Inayat Aamir (22) were the other scorers for Pakistan School while Jones shared the bowling honours with Nick White, Uzair Khan and Patrick Hyde, the latter three picking up two wickets apiece.

Sudhir Shetty, COO of UAE Exchange Centre and Regie Eimaculangan, Marketing Manager of Unilever attended the final along with the Abu Dhabi Cricket officials. "Full credit to ADCC for staging their first ever inter schools event and we will always be ready to support the game at the grass root level," said Shetty.

Luc Jones was named Best Batsman of the tournament with 171 runs while Patrick Hyde, also from British School earned the Best Bowler award with 11 for 89 in the tournament. Pankaj Prakash Suman of Abu Dhabi Indian School earned the Man of the Tournament award for his 186 runs and seven wickets.

Brief scores: SKBZ Pakistan School: 180 in 24.2 overs (Ekram Al Deein 25, Inayat Aamir 22, Ahmad Yousuf 42, Wajid Khan 34, Luc Jones 3-18, Nick White 2-39, Uzair Khan 2-31, Patrick Hyde 2-19) vs British School-Al Khubairat: 181 for 1 in 19.2 overs (Uzair Khan 67 n.o, Luc Jones 50).