UBL tame Lions to clinch UAE Exchange Trophy

Abu Dhabi: UBL clinched the UAE Exchange Trophy beating Colombo Lions by four wickets in the T20 finals at the Shaikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.

Being put into bat, Colombo Lions lost early wickets but recovered to reach 67 for two in the first 10 overs. They were very much in line for posting a respectable total but then lost five wickets for 39 runs. Chathura Deshapriya (39) topscored for them but it was the boundaries from Mohammad Fazil and Dilan George (30 not out) in the final overs that saw Lions reach 133 for seven in 20 overs.

UBL skipper Qazi Ayub led from front with the ball claiming three wickets, conceding just 20 runs. Ahmad Raza, Zaheer Maqsood, Aqeel Anwar and Ayaz Khan shared one wicket apiece.

UBL, in reply, managed to keep a steady run-rate but kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Sanjeeva Dias claimed four wickets conceding 21 to keep his side in the game. At one stage, they needed 30 to win from 24 balls. However, Anwar scored a quickfire 16 off five deliveries to see his team home in 18.4 overs. Amjad Ali topscored for the winners with an unbeaten 39.

“It is amazing to win this trophy. The boys are extremely happy to be on the winning side. In the previous years, we were performing well but didn’t do enough to reach the final,” said Ayub, who won the Man-of-the-Match award for his effort.

“We played like a team today. There was a lot of turn on the wicket but we did well to rotate the strike and took lot of singles and twos,” said the skipper, adding that, his bowlers did well to restrict the opposition to a modest total.

“Our spinners came and did a brilliant job for us. They got some quick wickets and managed to restrict them to a modest total,” said Ayub.

UBL’s Syed Maqsood, who accumulated 471 runs including two centuries, was adjudged the best batsman of the tournament. Sanjeewa Dias of Colombo Lions was declared the best bowler with 17 wickets with a best haul of four for 11 while ADNOC’s Jamshed Butt with 386 runs (highest score of 145) and eight wickets was the player of the tournament.

In all, 40 teams took part in the tournament under the auspices of the Abu Dhabi Cricket Club and a total of 95 games were played.