Indian High stop Zenith from scaling the peak

Anil Adnani led a fine bowling performance by Indian High School, Dubai as they outclassed the much-vaunted batting line-up of Zenith Training Institute to lift Abu Dhabi's first-ever Al Rawabi Inter-School cricket title here yesterday.

Zenith, whose batsmen had plundered runs in the tournament, managed only 74 in 19 overs. IHS skipper Aditya Shenoy stayed unbeaten on 22 to help the Dubai side complement the good work by their bowlers and wrap it up by five wickets.

When the Dubai school turned up this morning without their star player Ramveer Rai, little did they realise they were in for a stroll.

The Zenith team turned up about 15 minutes late, thanks to a breakdown of their bus and things never went right after that.

After opening bowler Rameez Iqbal had dismissed Mohammed Waseem (best batsman of the tourney) and the consistent Imran Ali, the slightly built Anil and semifinal hero Navin Gagal went for the kill.

Skipper Mudasar Ejaz scored a brisk 29 even as five of his teammates were out without scoring.

For Anil, the 11th standard commerce student, it was his second five-wicket haul, having earlier won a similar Man of the Match award in an under-14 final two seasons ago. Navin followed up his four wickets in the semis with another three and Zenith's strong batting crumbled. In reply, IHS lost two early wickets but Naresh Rao and later skipper Aditya Shenoy ensured they avenged their league match defeat in style.

"It was great for us to win without Ramveer Rai. We just came here to give them a good fight as they had some solid batsmen. We are delighted to win this inaugural event in Abu Dhabi," a beaming Aditya said. "Nothing went right for us since our late arrival as we could hardly warm up.

"We have five strong players and the rest are all playing for the first time. All four of our main players failed and we paid the price," said Mudasar, who won the tournament's best bowler award.

Brief scores:
Indian High School, Dubai beat Zenith Training Institute, Abu Dhabi by five wickets. Zenith 74 all out in 19 overs (Mudasar Ejaz 29, Anil Adnani 5 for 15, Navin Gagal 3 for 22, Rameez Iqbal 2 for 22)
I.H.S Dubai 76 for five Aditya Shenoy 22 n.o, Shuja Dar 2 for 15)
Man of the Final: Anil Adnani of IHS, Dubai.
Special Awards: Best Batsman: Mohammed Waseem of Zenith (two centuries).
Best bowler: Mudasar Ejaz of Zenith (15 wickets)
Player of the Tournament: Ramveer Rai of IHS, Dubai (307 runs and 7 wickets).