Report and pics: Mohammed Siraj – Dammam
Daijiworld Media Network – Dammam (SP)
Dammam, Dec 22: In the Wilson Memorial Trophy Ten-overs-a-side Knockout Cricket Tournament held here, Blue Stars team from here defeated Al Anwaar Cricketers by seven wickets in the finals.
Al Anwaar chose to bat first, after winning the toss. It lost one of its openers to the second ball of the match, and then its second wicket fell to the fourth ball of the first over, bowled by opposite captain, Hyder. At this moment of crisis, all-rounder, Alam, and Majeed, played with a sense of responsibility and put together 40 runs for the third wicket. After the fall of Alam’s wicket, Majeed and Abdul tried to lead the team to a respectable score, but the middle order batsmen of the team failed to consolidate their innings against the superlative bowling and fielding performance by Blue Stars. In the allotted ten overs, they were able to reach 72 for the loss of nine wickets.
For Al Anwaar, Majeed made 20, Alam contributed 17 runs, while Abdul chipped in with 11 runs. For Blue Stars, Hyder, Iqbal, and Sakib, claimed two wickets each. Shameem of Blue Stars helped his team with three brilliant catches.
Blue Stars could reach their target of 72 runs in their seventh over itself, for the loss of three wickets. Openers, Ashraf and Imran, put together 30 runs for the first wicket, before Anwar joined Ashraf and added 35 more runs without any problems, for the second week. As Al Anwaar bowlers failed in their task to restrict the opponent batsmen with disciplined bowling, Blue Stars batsmen could add runs briskly without any hiccups.
For Blue Stars, Javed hit 32 runs, Anwar made 20, while Imran contributed 13 runs.
Javed of Blue Stars team was adjudged ‘Man of the Match’, and received his award for brilliant batting display. Other best performances of the tournament were as follows:
Javed of Blue Stars – Best Batsman and Wicket Keeper.
Subail of Panorama – Best Bowler.
Shameem of Blue Stars – Best Outfielder.
Alam of Al Anwaar – ‘Man of the Tournament’ for his brilliant batting and bowling performances throughout the tournament.
Prior to the final, the first semifinal was played between Blue Stars and Panorama. Panorama, who batted first, made 91 for the loss of six wickets in ten overs. Abdul Gani (45) and Salman (14) were their main scorers. In response, Blue Stars humbled the target in the ninth over, helped by fine performances from Javed (50) and Anwar (24).
In the second semifinal played between ICC and Al Anwaar Cricketers, ICC, which batted first, could collect only 76 for the loss of six wickets, although their batsman, Javed, made 51. In reply, Al Anwaar mustered 81 runs for the loss of six wickets in the tenth over. They were helped by a brilliant 34 made by not out batsman, Thouseef, and Alam (30), who also remained unbeaten.
DCA Committee thanked Vincent Saldanha and family for sponsoring this knockout tournament. It also requested the family to continue their patronage for the DCA in the coming years.
After the finals, sponsor, Vincent Saldanha, lauded the efforts made by the DCA committee towards organizing such a fine tournament spread over four weeks, and in which, 32 teams participated.
Ivan Pinto, Mushtaq, Eithesham, Raj Gopal, Gopal Shetty, Sharief Karkala, and Bava Shabu Beary were present at the final match of the tournament.
DCA general secretary, Mohammed Siraj, announced about the plans to organize 20 overs Champions League Cricket Tournament for the year 2010-11. This tournament will begin on January 7, 2011, he declared.