NAS, Jumeirah Mammoths enter final of League of Mammoths IV
dubai — Nad Al Sheba and Jumeirah Mammoths recorded contrasting wins on their way to the final of the fourth edition of the League of Mammoths cricket tournament at The Sevens ground in Dubai which was played over the weekend.
The tournament is organized by Dubai Mammoths under the auspices of the Dubai Cricket Council.
While NAS cruised past Dubai Red Knights without much ado by registering a massive 106-run win, Jumeirah just about managed to squeeze their way past Zabeel Mammoths with a last-ball thriller.
The final between Jumeirah and NAS will now be played at the Sevens on February 17.
With two slots up for grabs in the final and three teams in the fray the last day of the league matches proved crucial. Dubai Red Knights went winless in the tournament but NAS still had to beat them to book their ticket to the final. And they did it in style to finish on 12 points.
Batting first on winning the toss, NAS were off to a flying start after Abid Choudhury led the way with a strokeful 73 from just 53 balls. His knock contained seven fours and two sixes. He and Mohammed Naeem (28) raised 92 runs for the opening wicket.
Although both made exits in quick succession there was no respite for the Red Knights bowlers who came in for some more stick from Qais Farooq and Lucky Abbas. Farooq blasted an unbeaten 67 from 44 balls after finding the ropes on 10 occasions. Abbas was more merciless during his 27-ball stay at the wicket where he clubbed three sixes and four fours on his way to an unbeaten 46.
Facing an imposing target of 236 to win Dubai Red Knights capitulated against some tidy bowling from Devarajan Srinivasan (3-21) and Abhay Singh (2-29) while Mustafa, Lucky Abbas and Sameer A Khan chipped in with a wicket each.
In the other match Zabeel had to beat Jumeirah to have an outside chance of making the final. They did push them to the brink but came up short with the match going down to the wire.
Batting first Zabeel received a good start from openers Jawed Siddique (28) and Chirag Mehtani (30) as they put on 61 runs. But once Jawed was run out it triggered a collapse from which Zabeel never recovered and in the end they were bowled out for 137 with Ambey Parwatkar (3-16), Shiva Pagarani (2-26) and Sheridan Hadfield (225) being the chief destroyers.
Jumeirah’s chase began on a wrong note with three of their top four batsmen in the hut with the score reading 3-2.
But man of the match Shiva Pagarani and Vijay Mehra stitched an invaluable 54-run partnership to revive Jumeirah’s hopes. Shiva departed for 31 and Vijay for 37. At this stage Zabeel got their hopes high but Sujith Salian (20 not out) and Sheldon D’Cruz (24 not out) quashed those hopes.