G Force complete hat-trick in academy tournament

Dubai: G Force Cricket Academy continued their domination among cricket academy teams by winning the Dubai Cricket Council’s Cricket for Care Under-15 tournament for the third time in a row.

In the final of the third edition of this tournament held at the Fairgound Oval here, G Force beat Emirates Cricket Training (ECT), Sharjah, by 72 runs.

This momentous achievement of continued success by a junior team in the UAE domestic cricket has been made possible by an inspirational method followed by Gopal Jasapara, the Head Coach of the G Force Academy.

He told Gulf News: “After we won this tournament for the first time we lost most of our top performers for the second edition, as they crossed the age limit to play in the event. We inspired the new team by urging them to perform like their seniors and they did.

“To achieve the hat-trick, we made our former captain Shorye Chopra hand over the captaincy to Mit Surati with a message to all players to emulate what their seniors did for the last two years.”

In this year’s final, G Force registered an impressive 187 in 38.5 overs, with Shrijith Sivram top scoring with 36 despite fine bowling from ECT’s Ihsanullah (4 for 34) and Mohammad Ejaz (3 for 33).

G Force’s Sivram also sparkled with the ball by taking two wickets, while Mohammad Shadad produced a three-wicket spell as ECT were restricted to 115. ECT’s star batsman and captain Shamsullah once again played a superb knock of 48, but his efforts went in vain.

“We were in control of the final from the start mainly due to the emphasis we give on match practice during training. It helps my boys to know how to bowl according to the field and also to set the right fields for their bowling,” Jasapara said.

Shyam Bhatia, who sponsored the tournament and gave away the prizes, urged coaches and the DCC to conduct more 40 and 50 over matches, especially at the junior level.