Nad Al Sheba beat Jumeirah for cricket title
dubai — Favourites and table toppers Jumeirah Mammoths were caught napping by Nad Al Sheba in the final of the Mammoths Cricket League at the Sevens ground in Dubai on Friday night.
Winning the toss and opting to field proved a decision Jumeirah captain will rue as they were outplayed by their opponents.
NAS had a superb start from Sujit Salian and Gaurav Rajkumar. Together the openers realised 41 runs and that immediately put Jumeirah on the back foot.
Sujit struck five boundaries for his 30 runs which came from 22 balls while Gaurav scored a run-aball 14. Abid Chaudhury, who had a fantastic tournament with the bat and was rightly adjudged the best batsman of the tournament later, could not contribute much in the final but his 18 from 11 balls with four fours did up the run rate and it also helped Mohamed Ibtisham to play some carefree strokes at the other end.
Nalin Khaitan chipped in with 11 but AKS Satish (20) and Harish Jashnani (26 not out) gave Ibtisham ample support for the latter to reach his half century. Ibtisham hit two sixes and two fours for his 53 from 47 balls to enable NAS reach a healthy 188 for 7 from their 25 overs.
Jumeirah’s strength throughout the tournament was their batting but in the final they were all at sea.
Both openers — Biju Nair and Amjad Ali — departed without opening their accounts.
Vinay Mehra (23) and Yuvraj Kurup (15) gave Jumeirah some hope in the middle but once Yuvraj was caught short of his crease trying a cheeky run it looked curtains for them.