Alubond’s Qasim steals show in Ramadan T20 Bash opener

dubai — Mohammed Qasim stole the show on the opening day of the Ramadan T20 Bash tournament that got underway at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium over the weekend.

Alubond Tigers’ Qasim was instrumental in bowling Super XI out for a meagre 108 after he bagged four wickets for a miserly 10 runs from his four overs. Sultan Ahmed and Kamran Shahzad bagged two each after Umar Yaqoob (31) and Abhinav Arora (22) were the only major contributors for Super XI.

Qasim later returned with the bat and along with his opening partner Abdul Shakoor clobbered the Super XI bowlers to all parts of the ground to finish the match in 10 overs without losing their wickets.

Man of the match Qasim struck an unbeaten 56 from 28 balls which consisted of a six and seven fours, while Shakoor got to his half century from 32 balls with eight boundaries. Super XI again lost their second Group A match when they were thumped by Bukhatir XI. Chasing a stiff 223 for victory, Umar Yaqoob (30) and Ali Yaqoob (29) gave them a rapid start with 71 runs on the board but the latter batsmen collapsed like a pack of cards against Vishnu Sukumaran (3-21), Mohammed Halan (2-23) and Rizwan CP (2-20).

Earlier, man of the match Adnan Mufti top scored for Bukhatir with 83 (46 balls), while Shyam Ramesh 31 (13b, 1x6, 4x4), Rizwan CP 24 (14b, 4x4), Prince Pannu 25 (17b, 1x6, 2x4) and Khalid Shah 20 (11b, 1x6, 3x4) were the other batsmen that gave Bukhatir a healthy total.

In a Group B match, WH Abu Dhabi Gymkhana beat Wombats by 41 runs. Ghulam Fareed (46 n.o), Shujee Haider (36) and Nail Mohammed (27) helped them to 157 for 5 in 20 overs. Wombats lost opener Mohammed Ali early but Tauseef Qadri (46) and Hasnain Raza (36) put on 85 runs to keep Wombats in the chase.

But once they departed the rest too surrendered to Khalid Khan (316), Sajjad Saeed (2-1), Naqash Bashrat (2-19) and Farhan Ahmed (2-30). Twelve teams are participating for the top prize of Dh15,000 with the runners-up in line to win Dh5,000. The tournament is Organised By Dubai Cricket Council in partnership with Dubai Sports City. Draws for the 12 teams were held at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on May 11 along with DCC & DSC Officals.