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Jotun Paints win second title

Junior T-20 League in the final played recently at Umm Al Quwain grounds. The tournament was conducted by Umm Al Quwain Cricket under the leadership of Mushtaq Ahmed.

The final did not reach to dizzy heights but Bilal Murtaza stole the limelight with his explosive batting and rightly claimed the man of the final award.

Murtaza belted seven sixes and an equal number of fours in his 45-ball 85 runs as Jotun Paints reached the low target of 116 set up by their rivals. Murtaza made the victory so easy that the rival bowlers could not even find a chink in his armour. He hit the bowlers all over the field and posed problems to all the fielders who failed to contain him. After he lost his partner Azhar N who fell for a duck facing his first delivery, Murtaza and wicketkeeper Nitin stood their ground and protected their citadel granting no access to the rivals to make any more inroads into their fort. Nitin scored 30 runs from 24 deliveries and hit one six and reached the boundary on three occasions.

Prakash picked up the lone wicket of Azhar as he conceded nine runs. The other bowlers were severely punished by Murtaza and Nitin, the worst to suffer being Balaji who conceded 22 runs in the only over he hurled. Avinash (22 runs), Kumar (19), Jairaj (16), Ashish (13) and Anish (11) were others who received the treatment in their two overs each they bowled.

Earlier, What’s On won the toss and elected to bat, a decision their captain must have regretted as the day progressed. They lost their top three batsmen, including both openers, with the scoreboard just reaching the double figures. Opener Shezad contributed one run after facing two balls while his partner Jairaj Thakur departed on seven which included one hit to the fence. One-down Biju also did not last long and returned to the pavilion after facing three balls and scoring two runs.

However, Aneesh and Ashish put their heads together and steadied What’s On innings giving it some respectability. Aneesh scored a 20-ball 21 which included three boundaries while Ashish made a patient 17 from 32 deliveries and reached the fence once.

After they departed, chaos crept in and some wickets were lost as the panic button was pressed by the players. However, with some impromptu hitting by their tail-enders What’s On managed to get the score past the 100 mark.

Kumar (14) and Avinash (13) remained not out while Nader (11) and Kamesh (12) made some useful contributions as What’s On set up a target of 116 for Jotun Paints.

Azhar Ali was the most successful bowler for the winners as he picked up three valuable wickets whilst conceding 16 runs. Sachin (2 for 12), Niranjan (2 for 19) and Sidhu (1 for 29) were the others who scalped wickets.

Bilal Murtaza was the man of the match award for his aggressive batting. Earlier in the semifinals, What’s On beat Century XI by seven wickets while Azhar’s 126 helped Jotun Paints get the better of Sharjah Eagles by 96 runs and make it to the final. Thirty-two teams took part in the tournament.