Passage to India and Al Turki NMC post contrasting wins
Defending champion Passage to India (PTI) and Al Turki NMC registered contrasting victories against Muscat CT and Enhance CT respectively in their Oman Cricket Premier Division games held at the Al Amerat ground over the weekend.
In a low-scoring match on Saturday, PTI began its title defence on a winning note as it beat Muscat by 14 runs.
Batting first, PTI was restricted to 183 in 49.3 overs. Asif Khan (48), Muhammed Sajjad Ali (41) and Kashiyap Kumar (33) were the main scorers. Allrounder Ayaan Khan was the top wicket-taker with three for 37 while Badal Singh took two.
Muscat was reduced to 92 for six, before Ayaan (41) added 61 runs for the seventh wicket with Sandeep Goud who scored 32. However, Muscat failed to overcome the target as it was dismissed for 169 in 49.3 overs. Shoaib Khan contributed 24.
Ahmed Fayyaz Butt and Aqib Ilyas bagged three wickets each while pacers Muhammed Bilal and Bilal Khan took two each.
Patel stars for Al Turki
Earlier on Friday, Jigneshbhai Patel’s four for 23 helped Al Turki NMC record a four-wicket win over Enhance.
Opting to bat first, Enhance found itself in deep trouble at 27 for four in the 12th over and could never recover as it was bundled out for a meagre 99. Mehran Khan top-scored with 26. Apart from Patel, Jay Odedara took two wickets for 20 runs.
Al Turki surpassed the small target in 33 overs, but lost six wickets in the process.
Opener Twinkal Bhandari led the way with a gritty 40. Enhance captain Khawar Ali claimed three for 36 while Zeeshan Tufail bagged two wickets for 26 runs.
Brief scores: Passage to India 183 all out in 49.3 overs (Asif 48, Muhammed Sajjad 41, Kumar 33; Ayaan 3-37, Singh 2-30) beat Muscat CT 169 all out in 49.3 overs (Ayaan 41, Goud 32, Shoaib 24; Ilyas 3-25, Fayyaz Butt 3-44, Muhammed Bilal 2-13, Bilal Khan 2-31).
Enhance CT 99 all out in 32.5 overs (Mehran 26; Patel 4-23, Odedara 2-20) lost to Al Turki NMC 100 for six in 33 overs (Bhandari 40; Khawar 3-36, Tufail 2-26).
A Division: MDC Enhance Eagles 151 for nine in 50 overs (Sudeep Chavan 89, Obaidullah 51, Amanpreet Singh 37 n.o.; Yash Mehta 2-33, Kurukulasuriya Sajith 2-39, Nikhil Shinde 2-48) beat Renaissance CT 257 for eight in 50 overs (Amandeep Singh 54 n.o., Kurukulasuriya 51, Siddiq Afsar 31; Parmaeshwaran 2-31, Obaidullah 2-43, Ghazanfar 2-47).