Danube added another trophy to their cabinet as their Jebel Ali Dynamos’ franchise team outplayed AAJ’s Downtown Strikers to clinch the Conares Mirchi Premier League title.
– On this day: 1979 – England dismiss Canada for 2nd lowest WC total
Jebel Ali Dynamos dominated from the first ball and proved too strong for Downtown Strikers, claiming a 60-run victory.
Although it was a one-sided affair, the eight-franchise tournament, which followed the IPL format, served up some thrilling contests as the three-day event concluded at Dubai’s indoor venue at United Pro Sports.
With the rules similar to the outdoor format, each player bowls one over and bats as a pair for two overs. For each wicket that falls, the batting team loses five runs but the batsman can still continue his innings until his allotted two overs are finished. There are four sessions in all of two overs each.
The finalists were meeting for the third time (group stage and eliminator one) in the inaugural competition with a win apiece for both teams. And it was Jebel Ali Dynamos who rose to the occasion in the championship decider.
Batting first, Downtown Strikers did not get off to a good start with Sameer Nayak (-8) and Jay Joshi (2) ending the first session with -6.
Arif Arai (11) and Ajeeb Jamal (-4) helped Downtown Strikers reach seven after the second session despite a wicket each from Kamal Kuruppa and Tharindu Mendis.
Jebel Ali Dynamos continued to dominate and despite the efforts of Anil Adnani (-1), Barjinder Singh (-6), Rohan Nayak (7) and Asif Arai (1), the Strikers ended their innings with two runs.
Backed by more than 100 fans, Dynamos’ Ruwan Chandrakumar (10) and Kuruppu (7) put on 17 after the first session.
Joshi claimed his first wicket as Ali Afzal lost five runs in his total, but he and Mohamad Ajmal frustrated Downtown Strikers to reach 33 at the end of session two.
Desperately in need of wickets, Downtown Strikers found it extremely tough to handle Jebel Ali Dynamos and their cause wasn’t helped by captain Mendis and Mohamad Khizer. Despite Sameer’s run-out, Khizer was in explosive form with the bat, scoring 14 runs while Mendis hit 11.
With Jebel Ali Dynamos’ score reading 58, Farhan Ahmed added a further four runs in the last session to wrap up victory.
The champions received a Dh25,000 winning cheque and Mendis admitted his side were far superior. “The confidence within the team was sky high and whatever mistakes we did in our previous games we didn’t do,” he said.
“When we restricted them to two runs, I felt we had a very good chance to win and we stuck to our basics, scored the runs and remained composed.”
Downtown Strikers’ captain Rohan Nayak said: “We tried to fight back after we lost the toss and the first pair put on a negative score. They (Dynamos) were professional and were the best team.”
