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Records tumble in Bukhatir Premier League match

Sharjah - Two players score double tons while one hit a century as Mir Club rout YTCA by 677 runs

On a day when sand storm hit the UAE, a tornado flattened a young academy team in an A division cricket match at the Sharjah Cricket Council's Al Dhaid Cricket Village. In a total mis-match of a contest Mir Club shattered records with a 677-run victory over Young Talent Cricket Academy (YTCA) in the 44th Bukhatir Premier League.

The YTCA team, comprising mostly teenagers, had all spinners in their ranks and only after conceding 300 runs two adults in the team attempted fast bowling. The seasoned Mir Club batsmen feasted on the inexperienced young attack to plunder a total of 44 sixes and 62 fours in a 50-over-a-side match.

There were two double hundreds and a century by Mir Club after being put into bat by the academy team. "We always choose to field first so our boys get the experience of playing full 50 overs," reasoned the YTCA chief coach, Shahzad Altaf, who interestingly has the distinction of conceding only 15 runs in ten overs in the 1996 World Cup against the Netherlands.

Explaining his academy team conceding 704 runs in 50 overs, he said: "We lost some of our regular players to ECB Blue, so we fielded much younger players. We wanted to give our young players a chance to bowl full 50 overs so we put the opposition in."

He conceded that the players were inexperienced for big cricket but hoped that the massive defeat was a good lesson to learn for future matches.

"No regrets as we returned to A Divison after 6-7 years," he said, adding that the young players panicked on the smaller Al Dhaid ground. Shahzad also said that his inexperienced young players dropped catches.

However, Kashif Mir, captain and owner of Mir Club, differed with Shahzad and said that only one catch was dropped.

"It was a mixed team with a couple of adult coaches too playing," Kashif claimed.

Talking about the tournament's highest score record, he said that after 25 overs they sensed that they could surpass the record of 518 by Globalink Westar and sent a message to his batsmen in the middle to go for it.

Kashif felt that academy teams should be careful in future of fielding teams in A Division tournaments.

Mazhar Khan of Sharjah Cricket Council had a different take. "The amount of sixes and fours scored in 50 overs illustrates the quality of cricket played. For the youngsters, this would be a learning experience," he told Khaleej Times.

Syed Maqsood and Kashif Mir (30, 22b, 5x4, 1x6) quickly put on 58 runs.

Syed Maqsood (121, 57 balls, 19 4s, five 6s) set the ball rolling for Dawood Ejaz (257, 89 balls, 19 4s, 21 6s) and Usman Saeed (200 not out, 89 balls, 14 4s, 14 6s) did the bulk of scoring. The two added 331 runs for the fourth wicket.

The young academy team was bowled out for 29 with Kai Smith (15 not out) being the only YTCA batsman to get into double figures. Saifullah Noor was the wrecker in chief as he bagged eight wickets while Muhammad Azhar claimed two.

In another match, Phoenix Medicine defeated Fly Emirates by 52 runs. Phoenix Medicine batted first and posted 245 before being all out in 42.3 overs. In reply, Fly Emirates batsmen disappointed as they were all for 193 in 37 overs.


Brief scores:

Mir CC bt YTCA by 677 runs.

Mir CC 706/4 in 50 overs (Syed Maqsood 121, Kashif Mir 30, Abdullah Azhar 42, Dawood Ejaz 257, Usman Saeed 200 not out) YTCA 29 all out in 12.1 overs (Kai Smith 15 not out; Saifullah Noor 8/18, Muhammad Azhar 2/2).

Phoenix Medicine bt Fly Emirates by 52 runs.

Phoenix Medicine 245 all out in 42.3 overs (Mohammad Usman 95, Muhannad Ikram 61; Usman Mushtaq 4/38, Nisar Khan 2/29) Fly Emirates 193 all out in 37 overs (Krishna Chandran 43, Usman Mushtaq 34, Abhijeet Joshi 39; Imran Khan 4/35, Taswar Ali Jammu 3/26, Tahir Lateef 3/40).