Emirates D20

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Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Sun Dec 06, 2020 8:25 pm

Another fun/pointless T20 tournament to run alongside the Sri Lankan and Bangladesh ones. This one goes all the way up to Christmas Eve so is worth investing some time in (if you are that way inclined.)

6 teams play each other twice before an IPL style knock out phase.

First up was Emirates vs Abu Dhabi where it was a bowler who impressed the most. Aryan Lakra, an 18-year-old left armer, got impressive figures of 5-16 to limit Abu Dhabi to 106 in pursuit of 142. Lakra could be one to watch as he has 22 wickets in his last 10 games.
Tournaments such as these bring unknown players to the forefront. According to Cricinfo this was Usman Khan’s first ever game however a score of 50 helped his team, Fujairah, to an inaugural victory over Sharjah. Sharjah could only manage 138 in the chase, ten runs short of the total.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Sun Dec 06, 2020 10:28 pm

Weirdly there was a third game and even more weirdly it featured a team that had played earlier in the day. It seems like Abu Dhabi might be the whipping boys of the tournament. After losing this morning they only managed 111 in a chase of 181. Ajman's star man was Rameez Shahzad who top scored with 73 and got 3 wickets in 1.2 overs for spectacular figures of 1.2-0-1-3.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:37 pm

After Day One it was honours even across the disciplines – one brilliant bowler, one big-hitting batsman and one amazing all-rounder.

No one is going to beat yesterday’s incredible bowling figures but Faisal Altaf’s 2-12 for Sharjah was pretty good going. Sharjah smothered Ajman to 128-5 a target they knocked off with ease.

Dubai lost their first game of the day to Fujairah and returned for the evening games against Emirates to lose their second. Palaniapan Meiyappan made it a successful day for bowlers as he got 3-17 as Emirates limited Dubai to a mere 128. Emirates meandered their way to the total.

Emirates and Fujairah top the table with two wins from two, Abu Dhabi and Dubai have two losses whilst Ajman and Sharjah split the difference.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Sat Dec 12, 2020 7:25 am

Over on the Lanka Premier League thread I claimed Galle might be the worst franchise team in world cricket....but then again I may be doing Abu Dhabi a disservice. As this comp starts up again Abu Dhabi played twice in a day and lost twice in a day.

They have now lost by 36 runs, 70 runs, 8 wickets and now 48 runs.

This does not does not mean that their opponents yesterday evening played at half pace. Fujairah's Waseem Muhammad got the highest individual score of the tournament so far with 101 off 60 balls to get his side to 181-3. AD got nowhere near.

Dubai beat them in the morning and Emirates beat Ajman in the middle match. Emirates and Fujairah top the table and are undefeated.
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Sat Dec 12, 2020 9:24 pm

After Abu Dhabi got their inevitable early morning loss to Sharjah out the way, it was the turn of the two table toppers to face one another. Emirates batted first and put on 135. This is only the second time they had been asked to set a total. On this occasion it was not enough as Fujairah won at a canter. Their most impressive player was Waseem Muhammad who got a round 50.

In the evening match, Dubai and Ajman scrapped it out for fourth place. Another decent performance from Rameez Shahzad (45 off 37) was not enough for Ajman to progress as he was in no way supported by the rest of his team. The highest score form any other player was a mere 13.
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Tue Dec 15, 2020 11:07 pm

Managed to catch bits of all three games today.

First up was one of the stronger teams, Emirates, versus one of the mid-table teams, Sharjah. The game went by the book from the off. Opener Vriitya Aravind got 86 off 60 balls and Emirates never looked back. Sharjah never looked close as they managed just 106 in their chase of 170. Vriitya Aravind is spoken of very highly as a future star of UAE cricket and could be the first UAE player to break into franchise cricket.
Another game went to the book but was tighter when top placed Fujairah beat Ajman – but there was just 17 runs in it. Usman Khan performed well again with 78 off 48 to get Fujairah to 164. He is just 6 runs off the top of the run scoring table which is dominated by Fujairah batsmen.

It was mainly a day for the batsmen – even where one bowler stood out they did not end on the winning side. Muhammad Hassan’s 4-39 – effective but profligate – summed up Dubai’s night as they allowed Sharjah to 156-8 – a total that they could not surpass.
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Wed Dec 16, 2020 7:09 pm

Weirdly only one of the three games was covered today. In it, Emirates beat Dubai by 15 runs. Syed Haider was the only Dubai player who put up anything close to a fight. His 63 ball 40 set Dubai on their way but once he fell they lost their way and fell short of the target of 173.
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:52 pm

Another full day in Dubai started off with Fujairah vs Abu Dhabi, Waseem Muhammad used the resident whipping boys to overtake his teammate on the overall run scorers rankings. He scored 82 of Fujairah’s today which takes his total for the tournament to 364. Fujairah got to 167-6 and Abu Dhabi only managed 123 – their third highest score of the tournament. They have lost 6 of their 7 games with the seventh being rained off.

Waheed Ahmed led a strong bowling performance for the Emirates to claim a win against Sharjah in the second game. His three wickets for just 15 runs saw Sharjah reach just 118 in a chase of 139. Only 4 Sharjah players got into double figures with three players out for a duck.

Things went from bad to worse in the evening game as Abu Dhabi got skittled out by Dubai for 68 in 17 overs. Rahul Bhatia’s 3-16 was the pick of the bowling figures. Obviously, Dubai got to the total, taking just 12 overs to do so.
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Mon Dec 21, 2020 8:45 pm

In another weird scheduling quirk of this tournament, nobody played twice today.

First up was second placed Emirates versus fourth placed Dubai. Emirates won the toss and elected to bat first – putting on 171-7. Dubai’s bowlers were good – especially Surjith Manohardas (2-30) – but ultimately profligate. 171 steep hill for Dubai to climb and one they only got just over two third of the way up – finishing their allotted overs with 139.

The middle game saw third beat fifth as Sharjah beat Ajman by 6 wickets. Captain Fayyaz Ahmad did a lot of the heavy lifting with his 64 helping his side chase down Ajman’s 131.

Top played bottom in the final match – and lest we forget Abu Dhabi are winless and possibly one of the worst T20 sides I have ever seen. They were royally schooled by Fujairah who managed to overhaul their total of 135 without the loss of a wicket in 12 overs. It was Sabir Rao who impressed again with 5-25. Been a decent tournament for the previously unknown bowler.
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Tue Dec 22, 2020 9:16 pm

After a tournament characterised by results going to form, there were a number of anomalies today.
After Emirates were beaten by Ajman in the morning game, we had ourselves a tied game in the middle fixture. Bilal Cheema’s 44 put Dubai back on track after a poor start to their chase of 153. Sharjah would have felt confident going in to the last over needing 14 however they got their and bagged the first draw of the tournament.

In the evening game, Asif Khan scored another big score and lost again. His 99 was the main reason why Ajman got to 148 – however Fujairah still polished that off in 15 overs. It’s their title to lose.
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Wed Dec 23, 2020 9:02 pm

The first of the two semi-finals went as you would have expected. Table toppers Fujairah comfortably beat Dubai by 16 runs despite a low scoring effort. With just 131 to defend, Fujairah were asking a lot from their bowlers and they duly delivered – not least Akif Raja who got 3-16 from his 4.

The second semi was an upset. Emirates went into the semi with 7 wins from their 10 games whilst Sharjah had just 4. The past did not matter, however as Sharjah toyed with Emirates and took an easy win. After losing a man early in their chase of 171, Fayyaz Ahmad set the agenda with a scorching 84* off 46 balls to claim a shock victory. They will face Fujairah in the final tomorrow.
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Re: Emirates D20

Postby The Professor » Thu Dec 24, 2020 8:18 pm

Before the final became the inevitable tedious third place play off between Dubai and Emirates. Alishan Sharafu saved his best performance for when it was most pointless. His 97 was one of the highest scores of the tournament and helped Emirates to overturn Dubai’s total of 167 and seal Emirates’ third position. Ir makrs a good week for Sharafu who also got handed a part time contract for the UAE national side meaning he will get paid during the Summer months.

The final was a suitable climax to a knockout round of shocks as Fujairah, run away leaders and the best team in the tournament by far, were beaten by Sharjah. Fujairah were ten for ten in the round robin fixtures with a NRR of 1.38 but this came to naught on the big day. It was a low scoring affair for both parties – only three players registered scores of over 20. It was the biggest score of the day from Kashif Daud that propelled Sharjah to the total of 131 and the title. Daud is another player who has had a good week – he was signed by Delhi for the T10 tournament next month playing alongside Darren Bravo, Mohammad Nabi and Evin Lewis.
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