High-Performance Cricket Academy (HPCA) Bahrain team creates waves in UAE’s domestic tournaments

By K.R. Nayar

With the aim of trying to overcome the lack of facilities, especially the absence of turf wickets in their country, the HPCA Bahrain team has been recently playing in UAE’s domestic cricket tournaments. By finishing runners-up in two successive tournaments and beating experienced teams, they have created a flutter in the UAE.  In a recent pink-ball two-day tournament, they experienced the longer version of the game and finished runners-up, while their players bagged some of the top awards.

HPCA Bahrain with the runners up trophy in the pink-ball two-day tournament

The High-Performance Cricket Academy (HPCA) Bahrain team, seeking exposure against strong and experienced teams and cricket academies in the UAE, is creating a big impact here. They finished runners-up twice in UAE’s domestic tournaments. This team's main objective is to overcome the lack of facilities in Bahrain, especially the absence of turf wickets.

In May 2021, they took part in the GCC Cup at the Vision Cricket Ground in Sharjah and finished runners-up, and they returned in July to take part in the pink-ball two-day tournament at the Ajman Oval ground and once again finished runners-up.

Soon after HPCA Bahrain emerged as runners-up in the GCC Cup on May 21, 2021, at the Vision Cricket Ground, Iqbal Sikander, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Development Officer, and former Pakistan cricketer had lauded the Bahrain team’s decision to take part in a UAE tournament for exposure. “For Bahrain to come and play cricket here is a dream come true since they don’t have any grassy grounds there nor do they have turf wickets. So it was extremely important for them to come here and play.”

On July 28, they reached the final of the pink-ball two-day tournament. Although the final was drawn, HPCA Bahrain’s opponent, the experienced Young Talents Cricket Academy Golty were declared winners based on their first-innings lead of 15 runs.

HPCA Bahrain team captain Vishwaesh Gurumurthy receives the pink-ball two-day tournament runners up trophy 

The two-day tournament was a brilliant initiative by UAE-based Young Talents Cricket Academy and Desert Cubs Cricket Academy aimed at giving young cricketers an experience of the longer version of the game. These matches were played in the evening from 4.00-9.30pm with a minimum of 70 overs to be bowled every day. Eighty overs were to be bowled for the finals.

HPCA Bahrain reached the final after a strong performance. It was the only team to record an outright win during the league matches of this tournament when they beat UAE's Desert Cubs.

In the final, Bahrain posted 129 in 45 overs in their first innings. Sakthivelu top scored with 53 runs while Haniel Asir Robert hit 24 runs and Arsh chipped in with an unbeaten 20. YTCA’s Sai Sudharshan, with three wickets for 13 runs, had restricted Bahrain’s run flow.

Chasing the target,  YTCA’s opener Uddish Suri played a superb knock of 62. Though Bahrain bowled brilliantly led by Sai Sarthak with a spell of 4 for 26, YTCA took a slender 15-run lead.

In the second innings, Bahrain batted brilliantly to post 172 for 6 and declared their innings. Their opener Ayush Rao cracked 44 runs and his partner Rishabh Ramesh chipped in with 37 runs. Together they put on 69 runs in 6.4 overs. Arsh, who was promoted up the order to the one-drop slot, hit 28 runs while wicketkeeper Vansh Kumar hit an unbeaten 33. The match ended in a draw with YTCA scoring 50 for no loss in the remaining 11 overs of the second day.  

HPCA Bahrain seemed very excited not only for the exposure they got but also because of their strong performance. Speaking after receiving the runners-up trophy, Bahrain skipper Vishwaesh Gurumurthy said: “It was a euphoric experience to play in the longer format and we were able to adapt to situations extremely well. We always played T20's and 30-over tournaments but playing in the longer format was an eye-opener and helped us to understand the game much better. We realized that hitting the ball hard is not that important, but batting consistently by finding the gaps is more important. Similarly, while bowling, to bowl consistently is more important than bowling short and sharp and to just finish the spell.”

Apart from HPCA being the only team to score an outright win in a league match, they won the Man of the Match awards in all the five matches they played. Shashank Shukla, Rishabh Ramesh, Sakthivel, Vishwaesh Gurumurthy, and Sai Sarthak were the ones who earned that honour.

HPCA also won the Best Bowler, Best Fielder and the Most Valuable Player awards. Shashank Shukla bagged the best bowler award while Haniel Robert was adjudged the best fielder. The prestigious Most Valuable Player of the tournament was also won by HPCA’s Sakthivelu.

Among the top seven best batsmen, three were from HPCA. The top three bowlers of the tournament were also from HPCA namely Shashank Shukla, Sai Sarthak and skipper Vishwaesh Gurumurthy. Among the top eight Most Valuable Players, six were from HPCA namely Rishabh Ramesh, Sakthivelu, Shashank Shukla, Sai Sarthak, Haniel Robert, and Vishwaesh Gurumurthy.

Guiding the players to give their best was HPCA coach Jesubabu Honeyman, who shaped the team both on and off the field at Ajman. Jesubabu is a former first-class cricketer and had earlier played for Tamil Nadu. “Our U-16 team has been primarily playing T20 or 30 overs format, which I feel is not the right format for this age group. This tournament, which is a long format, has been an eye-opener and an amazing learning experience for the HPCA U-16 team. They gained immense match understanding and explored themselves to play proper cricketing shots. They learned how important it is to defend good deliveries and penalize the loose ones. From a bowling perspective, they have learned the importance of good length bowling and variations to pick wickets,” remarked Jesubabu Honeyman.

Boosted by their recent performances, Bahrain will aim to return even stronger from the lessons learned and continue to make waves in UAE’s domestic cricket in the future.  

Brief scores

Final: HPCA Bahrain first innings: 129 in 45 overs (Sakthivelu 53, Haniel Asir Robert 24, Arsh 20n.o, Sai Sudharsan 3 for 13, Rishi Suresh 2 for 12, Abheenav 2 for 14)
YTCA Golty 144 in 62.5 overs (Uddish Suri 62, Rakesh Murari 22, Rishabh Ramesh 2 for 32, Sai Sarthak 4 for 26, Shashank Shukla 2 for 19)
HPCA Bahrain second innings: 172 for 6 decl. in 31 overs (Ayush Rao 44, Rishabh Ramesh 37, Arsh 28, Vansh Kumar 33, Uddish Suri 2 for 4)
YTCA Golty second innings 50 for no loss in 11 overs (Vaibhav Vaswani 29n.o, Shourya Raj 18n.o)
YTCA Golty won on first innings lead