Jumeirah clinch League of Mammoths
dubai — Shadab Khan struck a superb half century and Shiva Pagarani continued to mesmerise with the ball as Jumeirah Mammoths scripted a 29-run win over Zabeel Mammoths to emerge champions in the Dubai Cricket Council’s second edition of the League of Mammoths (LOM) at the Sevens ground over the weekend.
Jumeirah, led by Shiva, thus made amends for losing the final of the first edition to Nad Al Sheba.
Both teams went into the title clash with a victory against each other under their belts during the league phase. While Jumeirah won their first encounter by seven wickets, Zabeel came back strongly in the return match to win it handsomely by nine wickets.
Hence, both teams were eagerly looking forward to revenge.
In hindsight it was a good toss to lose for Jumeirah who didn’t have big scorers yet managed to reach 189 for 8 from their 25 overs.
Except for man of the match Shadab Khan’s 59 which came from 36 balls and contained three massive sixes and four boundaries, none of the other players could make an impression.
Prolific scorer and opener Yuvraj Kurup had a quite night in comparison to his brisk scoring. However his 24 from 35 balls did lay the foundation for Jumeirah.
Shadab took charge from here but only received support from Sameer A. Khan who scored a runa-ball 24.
Shajil Balan (3-39) and Vinan Nair (2-36) bowled well to keep Jumeirah under 200.
Captain Ranjeet Chavan struck two boundaries to set the stage for Zabeel’s chase but Usman Kutty and the dangerous Nikhil Srinivasan were packed off early and that made Jumeirah’s task look easy.
But they were in for a surprise when Javed Siddiqui and Player of the Tournament Vinay Tolani conjured up a 78-run partnership.
With little over 80 runs to be achieved the going looked good for Zabeel until Javed departed after scoring 35.
With Tolani and Vinan Nair at the wicket the odds were still in Zabeel’s favour but Shiva Pagarani, who has been the find of the season with his leg-spin, outfoxed Tolani (48 from 42 balls, 2x6, 2x4) and that was the turning point.
From there on Jumeirah cantered home although Vinan gave Zabeel a semblance of hope with some big hitting (28 from 18 balls, 1x6, 2x4) but Jumeirah’s bowlers were spot on to bundle Zabeel out for 160 in 23.4 overs.