by Jovin Dsouza
Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai

Dubai, Oct 30: The drama and excitement that is associated with one day cricket was very much in evidence at Dubai’s Zabeel Park cricket ground on Friday (Oct.28) when 18 top teams comprising of Karnataka cricketers slugged it out much to the delight of the spectators.

There were 18 teams in the fray including GBMIT Friends, Kodagu D.K. Gowda Samaja, Amchigele UAE Samaj, Sakath Thottam, Devine Sankerpura, ESPA Suratkal, Coastal Challengers, MCBC, Super 7 Karwar, Karnataka Cricketers, Little Flower, XI on top, Belle Bros, Friends Cricketers Dubai, Mogaveers UAE, Padmashali, Savinay Friends and Namma Tuluver.

At the end of the battle, Friends Cricketers Dubai outbeat Coastal Challengers in a one sided final.  Farooq of the winning team ran away with the Man of the Match award.

Earlier in the semi finals, Friends Cricketers Dubai were lucky to win against Little Flower who were looking good to enter the final.  But some clever bowling on the part of Friends Cricketers helped them to win a tense semi final.  Here again Alwyn took the man of the match for the winners. 

In the other semi final, Coastal Challngers stopped the non stop march of Kodagu Dakshina Kannada Gowda Samaja who went on winning their matches easily.  They were the first team to start the day with a win against Amchigele UAE Samaj and never looked back till they were stopped by Coastal Challengers.  Alwyn of Coastal Challengers took the man of the match award in the second semi final.

XI on top who were expected to do well were stopped by Little Flower in a match where the bowlers held sway.  There were teams with big hitters but when the hitters flopped the results too took a beating.

A fabulous tournament with no time wasted saw some fabulous cricket action.  There were 17 matches played during the day with the finals ending by 5 pm.  Chief guest of the evening was Francis Fernandes, MD of Specialised Power Products Est. (SPPE)  who gave away the trophies to the winnings teams.  There were special mementoes also given to the various officials including those who assisted in the tournament.

Another feature of the day’s excitement was splendid non stop cricket commentary Prem Pais, Aravind, Micky Castelino and Shodhan Prasad which added a lot of color to the tournament.

An overjoyed Denzil Fernandes who organized the unique tournament said that it was great to see some fine cricketers from Karnataka.  Denzil said that a bigger tournament will take place at the same venue in the first half of 2012 for all cricketers.