Anchor Marine lift seven-a-side cricket title

Dubai: Seven Seas Sports Club, which celebrates all important occasions of India and Pakistan by staging tournaments, staged the Pakistan Independence Day with a seven-a-side tournament.

Anchor Marine defeated Al Manal by five wickets to emerge as the champions.

This tournament, which is regularly held on the day that Pakistan celebrates its independence day, could not be held according to schedule because of the Ramadan tournaments. Most of the players were committed to playing in the different Ramadan tournaments.

Supporting the event, Atif Waheed of Discovery Homes donated all the trophies and announced that he will support the event every year. The tournament produced some outstanding performers in Kashif and Farhan of Anchor Marine. They bagged the best batsman and best bowler awards respectively while Asghar Butt of Al Manal won the player of the tournament award.

Seven Seas regularly stages seven-a-side tournaments and this format has gained huge popularity. "The exciting factor of these seven-a-side tournaments is its close finishes especially with the scores being always small and chaseable," said Tariq Butt, the chief organiser of the event, who introduced this format nearly 28 years ago. Incidentally, Butt has been staging the Indian and Pakistan Independence day cricket tournaments from 1990 without a break.

Al Manal reached the final with a 27 runs win over Enoc while Anchor Marine beat Pakistan Association by 14 runs.

In the final, though Al Manal posted an impressive 50 runs, Anchor Marine reached the target losing only one wicket in just 3.1 overs.

Brief scores

First semifinal: Al Manal C.C. bt Enoc C.C. by 27 runs. Al Manal 68 for 1 runs in 5 overs. (Asghar Butt 33n.o; Younus 2 for 13). Enoc 41 for 3 in 5 overs.( Rasheed 15)

Second semifinal: Anchor Marine bt Pak Association by 14 runs. Anchor Marine 93 for 5 (Kashif 27, Shafaqt 23n.o). Pak Association 79 for 2 in 5 overs. (Shaqoor 33, Abdul Haq 35)

Final: Anchor Marine bt Al Manal C.C. by 5 wickets. Al Manal 50 in 4.4 overs. (Adil 22, Qamar 15; Farhan 2 for 6, Shafaqat 2 for 11) Anchor Marine 54 for 1 in 3.1 overs. (Shafaqat 14n.o, Kashif 17, Salman 14n.o)

Man of the Match: Shafaqat Sidhwa