Clash of the mighty for the CBFS powered by Fancode S10 title as unbeaten MGM Cricket Club take on InterGlobe Marine in the final

By K.R. Nayar

The two outstanding teams in the CBFS powered by Fancode S10 tournament have reached the final with MGM Cricket Club scoring an emphatic eight-wicket win over Prim Heights Transport and InterGlobe Marine defeating Alubond Tigers by 41 runs in the semi-final clashes held at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

The question in everyone’s mind now is whether InterGlobe Marine can stop the unbeaten MGM Cricket Club in the final. InterGlobe Marine carries with them the confidence of being the champions of the CBFS T20 tournament.  The architect of MGM Cricket Club’s win was left-arm pacer Saifullah Noor who bagged three crucial wickets to restrict Prim Height Transport to 67 runs. The star of InterGlobe Marine's win was once again their experienced Asif Khan, who cracked a crucial 49 runs in their team’s 41-run win over Alubond Tigers.  The clash of the first and second finishers from Group A for the title is expected to be keenly fought from 7.30pm on Friday night.

First semi-final:  Prim Heights Transport vs MGM Cricket Club

MGM Cricket Club won the toss and elected to field. Prim Heights got off to a disastrous start losing openers Rafeeq Zaman and Waqas Ahmad to the first and fourth ball of the first over. Danish Qureshi had Rafeeq hitting high to be brilliantly caught by Ahmad Shafiq at deep point off Danish Quereshi for a duck while Waqas got run out for 4 off a direct hit from Adeel Malik at mid-off.

At the score of 8, Prim Heights lost their third wicket when Ateeq Ur Rehman got caught by Waqas Ali at covers off Ahmad Shafiq for the second duck of the innings. Amjad Gul and Amjad Khan took the score to 23 when Adeel Malik struck a vital blow. He had the consistent Amjad Gul swing to Waqas Ali in the deep. Half the side was back in 6.2 overs with the score reading just 33 when Rahman Gul too departed caught by Muhammad Hassan at short third-man off left-arm pacer Saifullah Noor. With the very next ball Saifullal Noor struck to have Amjad Khan caught by Rahul Chopra at backward point for 15.

Mehboob Ali and Irfan Khattak tried hard to lift their team out of trouble. They put on 28 runs for the seventh wicket before Irfan got caught by Danish Qureshi at long-on off Saifullah Noor. Hazrat Bilal became the second batsman to get run out and the third to record a duck at the score of 65. Asmat Ullah joined the list of ducks when Muhammad Hassan had him clean bowled. The last to fall was Mehboob Ali who top scored with 18 runs in the fifth ball of the tenth over to become the third batsman to get run out . Prim Heights thus got bowled out for 65 in 9.5 overs.

Chasing the easy target, MGM Cricket Club lost their opener Muhammad Kaleem to the second ball of the first over, clean bowled by Asmat Ullah for a duck. This was followed by a stubborn partnership of 53 runs between Mayank Kumar and Rahul Chopra. Mayank got out for 11 caught behind by wicketkeeper Ateeq Ur Rehman off Irfan Khattak. Rahul Chopra dominated the bowling and cracked an unbeaten 42 off 21 balls with seven boundaries and a six. Together with Fayaz Frank (16n.o), Chopra took the team to the target in 6.3 overs.

Speaking about his fine spell that destroyed Prim Heights Transport and win the Man of the Match award, Saifullah Noor said: “We bowled according to our plan. I am not worried about not getting the hat-trick since what matters is to win the semifinals and we did that.”

Brief scores:
MGM Cricket Club bt Prim Heights Transport by 8 wkts. Prim Heights Transport 67 in 9.5 overs (Saifullah Noor 3 for 19) MGM Cricket Club 71 for 2 in 6.3 overs (Rahul Chopra 42n.o)  Man of the Match: Saifullah Noor

Semi-final 2 : InterGlobe Marine vs Alubond Tigers

Alubond Tigers won the toss and elected to bowl. InterGlobe Marine did exactly what they have been doing in the past, and that is to win matches by getting off to a breezy start. Opener Asif Khan and Sandeep Singh gave an aggressive start by posting 62 runs in just 4.1 overs.

Asif Khan, the architect of many of their victories, went for his shots. Sandeep Singh was the first to go after hitting 21 off 10 balls with four boundaries. The loss of his partner did not stop Asif’s scoring spree.

Along with Yasir Khaleem he took the score 73 in 5.3 overs before getting caught by Zuhaib Zubair off Khalid Ibrahim. Asif’s 49 came off 22 balls with five boundaries and two sixes.  Yasir Khaleem faced only five balls to score seven runs before being caught by skipper Nasir Aziz to become Khalid Ibrahim’s second victim.

England Test star Owais Shah kept the scoreboard moving at a brisk pace along with Vishnu Sukumaran (14n.o). They put on an unbeaten 28 runs for the fourth wicket. Owais Shah remained unbeaten on 33 off 14 balls with five boundaries and one six to ensure an impressive total of 127 for 3 in 10 overs.

In their quarter-final win against Fair Deal Defenders, Alubond had chased down a target of 124 in 8.1 overs.  However, they failed to repeat that in this match. This was mainly because their openers Khalid Shah and Sagar Kalyan were able to put on only 22 runs in their opening partnership. Khalid Shah got clean bowled by Mohmmad Taimoor for 7 to the first ball of the second over. Six runs later, Ansh Tandon followed, bowled by Asif Mumtaz for 2. Asif Mumtaz also got the aggressive Khalid Ibrahim caught by Mohammad Taimoor for a duck.

Sagar Kalyan and skipper Nazir Aziz then took the score to 41 when Gopakumar Gopalkrishnan got Sagar Kalyan caught by Touqeer Riyasat for 24. When Nazir Aziz too got caught by Mohammad Taimoor off Asif Mumtaz for 4 and the score read 43 for 5, InterGlobe virtually booked their place in the final.

Harshit Khushik got stumped by wicketkeeper Yasir Khaleem off Shahnawaz Khan for 4, Alubond lost their sixth wicket before the 50 run mark. Muhmmad Mudassar and Zuhaib Zubair took the score to 73 in 7.4 overs before Muhmmad Mudassar became Shahnawaz Khan’s second victim, caught by Sandeep Singh for 21.

Asif Khan put on the victory stamp by removing Zuhaib Zubair caught by Mohammad Taimoor for 14 and restricting Alubond Tigers to 86 for 8 and record a creditable 41 runs victory.

Speaking about his match winning performance, Asif Khan who won the Man of the Match said: “It was important to play such a knock to ensure my team enters the final. I had to wait for a while for the ball to come into the bat. I had a talk with my captain and then decided to wait till the ball started coming into the bat and then play my shots. We have won the T20 event, and hence we are not tense about wanting to win this title too because all our players are professional and can play according to the situation.”

Brief scores:
InterGlobe Marine bt Alubond Tigers by 41 runs.  InterGlobe Marine 127 for 3 in 10 overs (Sandeep Singh 21, Asif Khan 49, Owais Shah 33, Khalid Ibrahim 2 for4 16)  Alubond Tigers 86 for 8 in 10 overs (Sagar Kalyan 24, Muhammad Mudassar 21, Asif Mumtaz 3 for 14, Shahnawaz Khan 2 for 19)
Man of the Match: Asif Khan