Sharjah: UAE’s young opener Chirag Suri, who has also begun a new innings as a coach and set up his own cricket academy at the Repton School, provided ample evidence of his abilities on the pitch with a match-winning century in the final of the first Al Dhaid T20 Bash 2018 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Suri’s unbeaten knock of 100 helped Bukhatir XI emerge champions with an eight-wicket win over a strong Alubond Tigers team.
Speaking to Gulf News after bagging the Man of the Match award, Suri said: “I now coach youngsters stressing on the basics of the game and that helped me in my knock too. I realised that when I was training I too was adhering to the basics more than I used to do before as I am conveying the importance of basics in batting to the youngsters too.”
Suri, fresh from a knock of 86 in the ICC World Twenty20 Asia Region qualifier against Kuwait, when asked how he had finished on exactly 100, replied: “In the last over, I was on 95 and we needed only five more to win and I hit a boundary and then took a single to get there. It is indeed special to get a hundred in a final.”
Suri reached his century off just 63 deliveries with nine hits to the fence and three over it.
Put in to bat first, Alubond Tigers’ opener Waseem Rana scored 27 runs while his opening partner, Mohammad Qasim, also made 27 of only 12 balls to get their team off to a good start. The good work by the openers was undone by the loss of wickets at regular intervals thereafter. Amjad Gul made 42 runs interspersed with a boundary and three sixes while Nasir Aziz and Sultan Ahmad made 13 each to ensure Alubond Tigers posted a respectable 173 for eight in 20 overs. Bukhatir XI’s Mohammad Halan bowled brilliantly, for a haul of four wickets.
Getting down to the chase, Bukhatir XI lost their first wicket with the score on 27 but Suri and Zawar Fareed then put on a 123-run stand for the second wicket to put their team well on course for victory. Fareed hit a 31-ball 50 including three fours and as many sixes. C.P. Rizwan kept up his impressive run of form to bag the Player of the Tournament award, with an aggregate tally of 121 runs and seven wickets.
