Defending champions Modern Heros and DPS Sharjah will clash for the Under-13 trophy after both sides registered comfortable semi-final victories in the ADIB NSL.
The two teams came into their knock-out round on the back of perfect records this season and that remained intact at The Sevens.
Drawn against Abu Dhabi Indian School (ADIS), who also won all their games this season, Heros showed why they are reigning champions with a superb all-round display.
Batting first, ADIS recovered from the loss of an early wicket with Sailles Jaishankar (28) and Nathan D’Mello (34) putting on a second-wicket stand of 62 runs.
But once they were dismissed, ADIS crumbled and were bowled out for 106. Varun Ravi claimed two as the capital side lost three wickets for two runs.
Set a target of 107, Heros got off to a strong start thanks to Ronak Panoli. The opener, who put himself in the record books by scoring the first ever century in the U-13 category during the group stages, was in fine form with the bat.
He smashed nine boundaries, racing to his half-century in 31 balls before being dismissed by Nooran Thakur.
But his partner at the other end, Sidharth Tugnait (40), and Varun Nayanar (8) saw the Dubai outfit home, reaching the target in the 12th over with nine wickets to spare.
Despite being frustrated he could not finish the job, Panoli was delighted his knock helped the team through.
“It’s good to have played a big part in this victory and I’m beginning to get into form,” he said.
“Being the defending champions we know teams will want to beat us but we remained composed and played well as a team.”
His coach Shafiq Ahmed, added: “I’m pleased, it’s another final for us but I’m particularly delighted by how the top-order batsmen performed. They stuck to their game and played a crucial innings.”
However, if they want to retain their title, they will need to overcome a DPS Sharjah side, who registered an eight-wicket victory over GEMS Our Own Indian School (GOOIS).
Rishabh Mathur, Hardik Pai and Aditya Manglani grabbed one wicket each as GOOIS were restricted to 85-4 in their 15 overs with Ebrahim Maqsood top-scoring with 38.
Set a target of 86, it was never a problem for DPS Sharjah with Nathan Shibu scoring 31 runs with one four, while captain Nikhil Nirmal contributed nine runs.
It was another victory for DPS Sharjah but Nirmal insists it was not easy.
“This was one of our good games so far,” said the 13-year-old.
“We really needed to put on a good show as it’s the semi-finals and GOOIS have been impressive in this competition.
“The bowlers bowled extremely well and got their batsmen out quite well and that set the platform.
“But still we were not too overconfident and our coach (Ayub Iqbal) stressed the importance of remaining focused. The batsman did that and scored the runs to get us home,” he added.
