Tariq stars as Nakheel taste first victory

dubai — Nakheel tasted victory after two defeats in the eighth edition of the Dubai Cricket Council’s League of Mammoths at the Sevens ground in Dubai.

Having lost to Zabeel Mammoths and Nad Al Sheba in their previous encounters, Nakheel did well to pull off a two wicket win over Jumeirah Mammoths.

Opting to bat on winning the toss, Jumeirah posted 158 for 7 from their 25 overs. Sandeep Raina who was going great guns on 44 was forced to retire hurt. Sheldon D’Cruz and Sadiq Saboowala both scored 28 each to guide their team to a respectable total.

But Nakheel’s man-of-thematch Fahad Tariq (64 from 30 balls, 2x6, 9x4) and Qais Farooq’s unbeaten 49 ensured they won with four balls to spare. Navin Punjabi bowled his heart out to bag four wickets and Mukund Srinivasan chipped in with two but they could not defend that total.

Nad Al Sheba also scraped home against Zabeel by 8 runs.

Put into bat NAS were bowled out for 159 in 21.5 overs. Vinay Tolani (36), Sheridan Hadfield (28), Sangeet Gopinath (26) and CTK Mashood (26) contributed with the bat. Ranjeet Chavan (3-38) and Shajil Balan (3-31) shone with the ball for Zabeel. Jawed Siddique (53) and Janaka Chaturange (35) looked set to take Zabeel home but man of the match Vinay Tolani (2-30) and the other NAS bowlers did well to restrict Zabeel to 151 for 8.