Maqsood powers Nucaf-Tellicherry to Mobil title

Syed Maqsood smashed an unbeaten 82 to help Nucaf-Tellicherry beat Seven Seas Strikers by seven wickets in the Mobil Cup finals at The Sevens ground in Dubai.

The tournament was sponsored for the ninth year by EMA Lubricants, distributors of Mobil Oil in this region who are one of the oldest sponsors supporting Dubai Cricket Council.

Chasing a target of 161, Nucaf lost opener Saleem Khan early as left arm medium-pacer Rana Kashif bowled superbly to have him edge to wicket-keeper Hasnain.

This was followed by a small partnership between Prajakat Chauhan (16) and Shadab Khan who put on 25 runs before Chauhan was trapped leg before to Hazrat Hussain.

Syed Maqsood and Shadab then took control of the game making batting look easy as they mixed caution with aggression to dominate the game. Both players played some lovely strokes straight off the wicket and did not hesitate to pull and cut the short pitched deliveries.

Shadab was lucky to have a let-off when Bilal dropped a top edge at point and he went on to make a run-a-ball 48 with three fours before being caught by the same fielder off Qadeer.

Maqsood, making his return to cricket after a couple of years, showed his class and temperament as he first played with ones and twos to grow in confidence and then smacked the ball around to all parts of the park.

He hit four glorious sixes most of them straight behind the bowler to race to 86 off 62 balls. He also cracked six boundaries to help his team race past the target with more than five overs to spare. He was awarded the man of the match for his superb knock.

Earlier Seven Seas electing to bat first, lost three wickets with only 14 on the board. Devendra accounted for both the openers and Nashwan Nasir picked up the dangerous Babar Ali.

Salman Afzal (38 with six fours) and Mohammed Tariq (37 with four boundaries) repaired the damage with a 46-run partnership.

Tellicherry skipper CTK Mashood then sliced through the middle order to bag three for 21 while Nashwan picked up Tariq for his second wicket.

Hasnain Raza played a superb knock to keep them in the game playing with lots of responsibility to make a top score of 60.
 
After the game both teams were introduced to S. Gunna, General Manager of EMA Lubricants, distributors of Mobil Oil in the region along with Mohammed Shariq, Retail Sales Manager and Mohamed Lokhandwala, DCC Honorary Secretary and DCC officials Farrukh Siddiqui and Shiva Pagarani. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Dubai later.

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