Tuesday, Jun 16, 2015

Al Ain: NMC put up a superb fight to beat Al Faraa by three wickets to secure a place in the final of the Al Faraa Corporate T20 League cricket tournament, organised by Durham-UAE at the Al Ain Sportplex ground.

The tournament is being organised under the auspices of the Al Ain Cricket Council. The pressures of a semi-final was quite evident when both the teams squared up under the trying conditions.

Al Faraa, who had earlier defeated HAAD cricket Club by a six-wicket margin in the quarter-finals, did rather well to post 180 runs against NMC. Babar Bashir stroked his way to 50 off just 37 balls including two sixes and six boundaries while Faisal Baig hit a six and five boundaries in his knock of 45.

NMC’s Haider Ali pulled things back with a superb spell of three wickets for just 13 runs in 2.4 overs.

NMC’s chase was not an easy one as well as they lost wickets at regular intervals before reaching home with two balls to spare. Usman Mohammad, who was later picked the man of the match, hit a match-winning knock of 46 runs off 22 balls. Usman lofted two sixes and four hits to the fence as NMC trotted home scoring 184 for seven wickets in 19.4 overs. NMC will now take on the winners of the semi-finals between Welkin CC and Dubai Hurricanes.

Staff Report

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