Murali Sockalingam played a stellar role with the ball and bat as Dubai Cricket Council (DCC) made it two wins out of two after beating Sharjah and Ajman Cricket Councils (SCC/ACC) by 53 runs in the Inter Council Forty’s League.
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Buoyant after beating Bahrain Al Awali Club by 25 runs in their opener at 7he Sevens in Dubai earlier in the week, DCC proved to be too strong for their opponents.
Sockalingam hit a half-century (56 off 36 balls) and along with Ambey Parwatkar’s fluent 56-run knock, DCC posted 169-7 in their 25 overs.
In reply, SCC/ACC were all out for 116 inside 22 overs as Sockalingam finished with figures of 2-12.
Put in to bat, DCC got off to a slow start losing Abbas Khan for five off just 17 deliveries.
But DCC added runs to the scoreboard with Ranji veteran Parwatkar smashing a half-century. His 56- run knock came off 45 balls which included eight maximums.
Sockalingam continued the run-rate for DCC by smashing an imp-ressive half-century as Adeel Far-ook (17), Saby Fernandes (12) and Vijay Mehra (8) all made a valuable contribution to DDC’s total.
Chasing the competitive target, SCC/ACC batsmen struggled with the bat with Zulfikar top-scoring with 45 off 26 (four 4s and two maximums).
Zulfikar’s team-mates, Shaji Ul- Mulk (11), Irfan Ansari (15), and Suranjith (12), did manage to score some runs but none could put on a good partnership, with the DCC bowlers on the top of their game.
When victory was wrapped up, Shiva Pagarani, Brij Bhalla and Ashok Puri, had all claimed one wicket each in the big win for DCC.
