Javed, Ibtisham star in Zabeel Mammoths’ win over NAS

dubai — Javed Siddique’s fivewicket haul and 24 runs with the bat and Ibtisham Mohammad’s unbeaten 69 helped Zabeel Mammoths to a last-ball win over Nad Al Sheba Mammoths in the third League of Mammoths cricket tournament being played at The Sevens ground in Dubai.

The tournament is organised by Dubai Mammoths under the auspices of Dubai Cricket Council.

NAS won the toss and though they lost both openers in quick succession it was No. 3 batsman Naeem Mohammad and twodown Prashanth Shetty who pulled them out of a hole.

Unfortunately both missed their half centuries by two runs. Devrajan Srinivasan, coming in at No. 5, stroked 28 but the rest of the batsmen were done in by Siddique’s deadly spell of 5 for 22.

Zabeel’s chase didn’t begin well with the score reading 85 for 5. But Ibtisham turned the match on its head with a blistering 69 from just 33 balls.

> Brief scores: > Shindagha Mammoths bt Jumeirah Mammoths by 4 wickets. Jumeirah 159 all out in 24.5 overs (Khurram Khawaja 46, Ambey Parwatkar 28, Mahesh Vangani 20; Lucky Abbas 3-25, Vinay Tolani 3-21, Santosh Kotian 3-24). Shindagha 165 for 6 in 21.5 overs (Sunil Raheja 53, Abid Choudhary 55*, Yuvraj Kurup 21; Mahesh Vangani 2-21, Neil Ojha 2-12). Man of the match: Vinay Tolani. > Zabeel Mammoths bt Nad Al Sheba Mammoths by 2 wkts NAS 177 for 8 in 25 overs (Naeem Mohammad 48, Prashanth Shetty 48, Devrajan Srinivasan 28; Javed Siddique 5-22) Zabeel 178 for 8 in 25 overs (Ibtisham Mohammad 69*, Javed Siddique 24, Sujit Salian 23; Deepak Patel 2-21). Man of the match: Javed Siddique.

His knock contained four sixes and six fours. With support from man of the match Javed (24) and Sujit Salian (23) they scampered home in the last ball.

In another match Shindagha Mammoths made light work of Jumeirah Mammoths’ total of 159 by winning easily with four wickets and 19 balls to spare.

Khurram Khawaja gave Jumeirah a solid start despite his partner Deepak Odhrani returning to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.

Khurram struck 46 and with Ambey Parwatkar (28) and Mahesh Vangani (20) contributing they took the team to a healthy total.

Vinay Tolani, Lucky Abbas and Santosh Kotian bowled well to bag three wickets each.

Vangani returned to grab both the openers and with AK Satish too back in the dugout the match tilted in Jumeirah’s favour.

But once Sunil Raheja and Abid Choudhary joined hands they made the Jumeirah fielders run for cover.

Raheja reached 53 from 45 balls while Choudhury was more lethal during his unbeaten 55 from 24 balls to take his team home.