Sharjah Cricket Council won the inaugural UAE Cricket League Men’s T20 tournament as they defeated Dubai Cricket Council by a comfortable margin of 8 wickets in the final played at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
It was a double delight for UAE national team captain, Rohan Mustafa, as he reached back in UAE from Nepal after featuring in the title winning run with Team Chauraha Dhangadhi in RUSLAN DPL 2 on 13th Apr 2018. Rohan managed to pick up a solitary wicket and then was involved in the match winning partnership with Abdul Shakoor to guide Sharjah Cricket Council to victory.
The match was nicely set-up for Sharjah by the #10 T20I bowler in the ICC rankings, Mohammad Naveed, who picked up two quick wickets at the start of the innings and two more in the final overs to finish with a haul of 4/17 in his 4 overs with a maiden. Naveed picked up the all important wicket of Mohammad Qasim, who held the innings for Dubai at one end with a patient knock of 56 runs from 51 deliveries. Yasir Ali (24 off 22) provided little bit of support for sometime but the rest of the batting line-up failed to contribute more as Dubai Cricket Council could only reach 117/9 in their 20 overs.
Abdul Shakoor scored 58 unbeaten runs to finish at #4 in the top run-getter’s in the tournament. Shaiman Anwar finished with the most runs for the tournament with 167 runs in 4 matches including his epic 101 n.o earlier in the group phase. Faisan Asif (135 runs from 3 matches), Waqas Raja (Kashi) (126 runs from 4 matches) and Chirag Suri (122 runs from 4 matches) completed the top 5.
No points for guessing as Mohammad Naveed was the top wicket-taker in the tournament with 10 scalps from 4 matches. Yasir Ali (7 wickets from 4 matches), Umair Ali (6 wickets from 3 matches), Zahoor Khan (6 wickets from 4 matches) and Sayed Ubadah (5 wickets from 4 matches) completed the top 5 line-up for the tournament.
Sharjah Cricket Council, Dubai Cricket Council, Ajman Cricket Council and Abu Dhabi Cricket Council took part in the T20 event, which is being played under the banner of Emirates Cricket Board’s UAE Cricket Leagues, in which the U19 and U16 tournaments were held prior to the T20 category.
