Under-12 cricketers make Indians proud

Dubai: Colts Cricket Academy (CCA) India’s Under-12 team did what their Under-15 seniors failed to do by beating CCA Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the final of the UAE Exchange Four-Nation Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament.

In the Under-15 event of the tournament, held at the 7evens cricket ground, CCA Sri Lanka had outplayed CCA India to win by six wickets.

The matches, in which the youngsters wore their national team jerseys, were keenly fought with huge backing from many companies like Gersan Electrik, UniCare Medical Centre, Key Fashions and 3M.

Children below the ages of 15 and 12, hailing from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the UAE, were divided into four teams based on their nationality and place of birth.

In the Under-12 event, the Indian team produced a consistent performance throughout the tournament.

Put in to bat first, the Sri Lankan team kept losing wickets at regular intervals and was restricted to 75 for 7 in the allotted 20 overs.

Except for Chanul, who played a fighting knock of 27 runs off 42 balls, none of the other Sri Lankan batsmen could stay at the wicket.

The chief destroyers of Sri Lankan innings were Prateek and Ajmal who took two wickets each. To make matters easy for India, three of Sri Lanka’s batsmen got run out too.

Chasing the easy target, the Indian batsmen found runs hard to come on the turf wicket but played with caution. Opener, Neel Lobo, who displayed top form throughout the tournament top scored with 22 runs off 41 balls.

Prateek, who sparkled with the ball, also hit 15 runs off 19 balls to steer India to victory and bag the Man of the Match award.

India won with one over and seven wickets to spare.