Sharjah: It was a busy weekend for the Sharjah Cricket Council (SCC) as they staged three tournament finals in as many days at the Sharjah Stadium, with all the matches being high-scoring contests.
The council decided to shift two Al Dhaid Cricket Village tournament finals to their main stadium to get the best out of the players in light of the increasing summer heat.
Speaking to Gulf News, Mazhar Khan, the secretary of the Sharjah Cricket Council said: “We shifted the finals of Al Dhaid Gold Cup and Al Dhaid T20 Summer Cup to Sharjah stadium to make it comfortable for the cricketers due to the heat. The finals were thus played under floodlights at night. The Sharjah Invitational T20 Tournament was also staged here to make it an unprecedented three finals in three days.”
All the finals were high-scoring affairs with the seventh edition of the Al Dhaid Gold Cup tournament producing a total of 528 runs for a 40-overs-a-side match.
Cost Cutter emerged champions chasing down the total of 263 for 8 posted by Ibsons, winning with two wickets and five overs to spare.
Three batsmen hit half-centuries for Cost Cutter with Zohaib Jamil topscoring with 75 runs. Farrukh Kazmi weighed in with 53 and Ebrahim Modi cracked an unbeaten 57.
In the Al Dhaid T20 Summer Cup final, a total of 331 runs were scored. Edible Arrangements chased Panthers’ impressive total of 165 for 8 in 20 overs and won with four wickets and three balls to spare. The hero of the match was Edible’s Prashanth Kumara who hit 53 off 36 balls with eight boundaries and a six.
In the Sharjah Invitational T20 Tournament, Phoenix proved that they are a formidable team in the Twenty20 format as they chased down Ibsons’ challenging total of 147 for 7 in 20 overs to win by seven wickets in just 16.5 overs.
Shabbir Malek hit 63 runs in just 35 delivers but the finishing touches were given by UAE’s star allrounder Rohan Mustafa, who hit an unbeaten 31. This match too produced a total of 295 runs.
For Ibsons, it was a disappointing two days as they lost both the finals after posting good totals.
In the Al Dhaid Gold Cup, Ibsons posted 263 for 9 thanks mainly to veteran batsman Baber Malek, who blasted a quickfire 41 from only 30 deliveries. Shahzad Malek further bolstered the total, hitting a fine 41 from 34 balls. Though a few quick wickets put the brakes on the run flow, leaving Ibsons struggling at 107 for seven, Misbah Khan blased a fine 81 from just 69 deliveries while Ahmad Shaukat smashed a 54-ball 63.
In the Sharjah T20 tournament, Ibsons amassed 147 for seven courtesy Shahzad Malek’s 50 came off from 28 balls with two boundaries and five sixes while Baber Malek hit a 20-ball 28.
