Imran Tahir, the veteran South African leg spinner, turned out to be the MVP for his adopted club Inter Club Marine as they became champions of Bukhatir League at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. This brought the curtains down on the prestigeous Bukhatir League, the only 50-overs contest in the UAE, which began on February 5.
The match, however, was a low-scoring one when being sent into bat, Atlas Foundation were all out for a sub-par 122 off 29.3 overs. A two-pronged spin attack by Tahir, who returned figures of 10.3-3-30-3 and Vishnu Sukumaran (3-0-8-3) were instrumental in tying Atlas down in knots.
The total did not pose much of a problem for Inter Globe Marine, who reached the target for the loss of five wickets in 30.5 overs. Tahir, coming down the order, topscored for the winners with a quickfire innings of 28.
Sandeep Sandy emerged the topscorer in the tournament with 436 runs from six matches, followed by UAE vice-captain Chirag Suri at 334 runs from four matches. Harry won 13 wickets from six matches while Rahul Bhatia was the second highest wicket-taker with 12 wickets from four matches.
Brief Scores: Atlas Foundation 122 all out of 29.3 overs vs InterGlobe Marine 123 for five off 30.2 overs. InterGlobe won by five wickets.
