Forty's Cricket Club beat Indian diplomats

UAE's Forty’s Cricket Club defeated the Indian Consul General’s XI which was led by Sanjay Verma, Consul General of India by four wickets in the annual cricket match played to celebrate the Indian Republic Day at the Dubai International Stadium on Friday.

Before the game, the Indian national anthem was played and the brief ceremony was also attended by ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat who came to watch the game and wish both the teams along with Maqbul Dudhia, General manager of the Dubai sports City.

Indian Consul General Sanjay Verma won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first on a good batting track. Openers Vijay Mehra and Jairaj Thakur put on 16 runs for the opening stand when veteran Freddy Sidhwa enticed Jairaj to step out and bowled him through the gate for 10 runs. Mehra 12, was ufortunate to be run-out in a mix-up with one-drop batsman Gopal Jasapara. Wily left arm spinner Freddy who continues to dazzle in local cricket tormented the diplomats with his flight and spin picking up Manjeet Kohli for 6 runs.

Jasapara and skipper Sanjay Verma then set about re-building the fortunes with a 40 runs partnership until Verma was bowled by Ashok Puri for a well made knock of 15 runs. Gopal was the main stay as the batting revolved around him with Rajesh Duggal playing the perfect foil with a good knock of 15 runs before retiring.

Gopal Jasapara top scored for the Consul Generals team making 39 runs laced with six boundaries before he was trapped in front of the wicket by former UAE Exchange player Indu Mouli.

Freddy coming in for his second spell picked up Jatin Negi who made 9 runs to dazzle in the bowling department finishing with three wickets for 20 runs.

Anil Chamoli 7, veteran Naresh Mehta made 3, and M.P. Singh with an unbeaten 2 runs saw their team finish with a fighting total of 138 runs in 22 overs.

In reply, Forty’s Club openers Shafi Ul Mulk 8, and CTK Nasir 17, put on 36 runs for the first wicket as Nasir was the first to go LBW to Jatin Negi and Shafi followed soon after as he was picked up by Ganesh.

Nalin Khaitan was bowled by Gopal jasapara to put Forty’s Club in a spot.

However Ashok Puri and Abbas Khan put on 38 runs for the fourth wicket to steer them to a comfortable position. Puri top scored with a quick fire knock of 32 runs including a six and a boundary before retiring while Abbas made 26 runs with four hits to the fence before he was well caught by Gopal off Anil Chamoli.

Indu Mouli 5, and Hormaz Sidhwa with 9 runs got them closer to the target but were picked up by M.P. Singh and Jatin Negi to give him his second wicket. Mohamed Lokhandwala and Shaji Shataj then rattled off the remaining 17 runs to race past with more than an over to spare.

During the break a five-over Ladies game was played between Gulshan XI and Fatima XI which was won by Fatima XI and Fatima Ahsan also went on to win the Best lady Player award for her excellent batting.

After the match, gifts sponsored by Anand B.S. Director of Bonanza were distributed by him to all the participants while trophies and awards sponsored by Forty’s Cricket Club were presented by Consul Labour – M.P. Singh accompanied by I.P. Khaitan, Shaji Shataj and Mazhar Khan of the Forty’s cricket Club.

Special awards:

Best Bowler - Consul General XI – Jatin Negi
Best Player - Consul General XI – Sanjay Verma
Best Player - Forty’s Cricket Club – Freddy Sidhwa
Best Batsman - Consul General’s XI – Gopal Jasapara
Best All-rounder - Forty’s Cricket Club – Ashok Puri
Best Lady Player – Fatima Ahsan

Teams

Indian Consul General’s XI: H.E. Sanjay Verma, M.P. Singh, Naresh Mehta, Rajendra Kumar, Dinen Bordoi, Manjeet Singh Kohli, Sandeep Sahni, Vijay Singh Negi, Jatin Negi, Rajesh Duggal, Ganesh, Anil Chamoli, Chander Bhan, Jairaj Thakur, Vijay Mehra and Gopal Jasapara.

Forty’s Cricket Club: Shaji Shataj Ul Mulk, Mohamed Lokhandwala, Mazhar Khan, Ashok Puri, Shafi Ul Mulk, Freddy Sidhwa, Indu Mouli, CTK Nasir, Pradeep Adur, Wilfred
Pereira, Nalin Khaitan, Hormazd Sidhwa and Abbas Khan.

Ladies teams
Gulshan XI: Gulshan Dalal, Aysha Nasir, Nabaa Khan, Yasmin Ul Mulk and Nidha Ul Mulk
Fatima XI: Fatimah Ahsan, Sania Ul Mulk, Bushra Khan, Iman Javed and Saira Chaudhary.
 

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