After coming out on top in the Under-14 championship decider of the UAE Xchange Abu Dhabi School League last week, the Pakistan School boys repeated the feat in the Under-16 final.
At the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in the UAE capital, Pakistan School had a tough task of defending 103 but held their nerve to seal a thrilling two-run victory.
ADIS were in control for the most part with the scoreboard reading 38-0 after the first four overs.
But after captain Jonathan Figy was sent back to the pavilion, the ADIS batsmen crumbled as Haji-ur-Rehman took three wickets in the first over of his second spell.
The lanky medium pacer dismissed Zaid Shaikh (5), had Nooran Thakur removed off his next ball and then held on to a return catch from Ayan Ahmed (4).
Nerves in the ADIS camp were shattered as Athul Murali (0) was needlessly run out at the non-striker’s end with the score 81-8.
Sailles Jaishankar (9no) and Vijay Sashank (10) gave them a glimmer of hope by taking their team to three figures, before Anwar Khan stumped the latter off the bowling of spinner Yousuf Khan.
Deadly spell: Pranav Kiron.
Safeerullah Khan ended ADIS’ hopes, when he knocked out the off stump of Mohammed Rasheed (0) to start the celebrations in the Pakistan School camp.
Meanwhile, Bright Riders’ Pranav Kiron produced an outstanding bowling spell to send his team into the Under-12s semi-finals at the expense of Emirates Future International (EFI) following a comfortable nine-wicket win.
He finished with figures of 5-3, while Dhimaan Battacharya and Soorya Sathish grabbed the remaining wickets to skittle out EFI for 55.
Nikhil Menon hit 28 not out in 21 balls as Bright Riders knocked off the winning runs inside eight overs.
They will be joined by GEMS Cambridge International, ADIS and Cambridge High School in the last-four.
