Dubai Mammoths, also known as Sindhi Club, was led by Shiva Pagarani and tested themselves against English opposition on their week-long visit.
Ranjeet Chavan, Vijendra Rana, Navin Punjabi Jawed Siddiqui, Sadiq Saboowala, Sangit Gopinath, Mukesh Patel and Deepak Odhrani were among the standout players in their games against Hinckley CC, Luton Indians CC, Wavertree CC, Liverpool Select X and Leicester Seniors.
With Dubai Mammoths playing a lot of T20 cricket in the UAE, the matches in England provided a different challenge when it came to 35 and 40 overs cricket.
“Coming from this part of the world where the short formats are very famous, in the UK, we were playing games for 35 and 40 overs,” said Pagarani.
“We faced a lot of difficulty in the first couple of overs because our mindset is T20 cricket. We lost the first match because we lost a lot of early wickets. Ahead of the second match, I briefed the team in depth to stand there for seven or eight overs because partnership is very important in these big formats. We made sure each pair gave a good partnership of around 20 to 50 runs and once we got that, that was how we started achieving the victories.”
After touring the UK for their sixth consecutive year, Dubai Mammoths plan to make the trip twice a year in May and August from 2019.
Brief scores:
Dubai Mammoths 213 for 9 in 40 overs (Sadiq Saboowala 50, Jawed Siddiqui 50, Ranjeet Chavan 30; Intu Khan 3-25) Leicester Seniors 196 (Intu Khan 81, Deepak Odhrani 41, Phil 23; Vijendra Rana 3-18, Navin Punjabi 2-40).
Luton CC 166 (Suleiman Mohammed 32, Subhash Karawadra 32, Abdul Mohammed 24, Devang Shah 22; Vijendra Rana 3-5, Navin Punjabi 3-26) Dubai Mammoths 167 (Jawed Siddiqui 31, Sangit 29, Ranjeet Chavan 25; Lucky Singh 3-22, Mayur Odedra 3-25).
Hinckley Town 211 for 9 in 35 overs (Janak Valand 80, Sunil Raheja 46, Deepak Odhrani 31 n.o., Asad Pathan 22; Shiva Pagarani 3-30, Mukesh Patel 3-34) Dubai Mammoths 176 (Navin Punjabi 31 n.o., Ranjeet Chavan 29, Rajesh Thadani 26, Vijemdra Rana 22).
Kenton CC 176 for 6 in 25 overs (Birch 50, Manzoor 27, Rowe 25, Hallam 21; Vijendra Rana 3-30, Sujit Salian 2-28) Dubai Mammoths 108 (Sadiq Saboowala 24; Chamberlain 5-27).
Dubai Mammoths 239 for 7 in 35 overs (Ranjeet Chavan 55, Sunil Raheja 45, Navin Punjabi 36, Jawed Siddiqui 37; Tony White 2-26, Sam Edkins 2-47) Prescott & Odyssey 198 for 7 (Mathew Jackson 57, George Reader 26, Carl Oughterson 24, Deepak Odhrani 24; Rajesh Thadani 4-31).
Dubai Mammoths 199 for 9 in 31 overs (Sangit Gopinath 72, Shiva Pagarani 39, Jawed Siddiqui 24; Sam Edkins 3-29, Harry 3-26) Wavetree CC 123 all out in 22.5 overs (Mukesh 4-20, Vijendra Rana 2-3, Lucky Abbas 2-31).
