Noor Al Yemen win Bukhatir Premier League
- 30 Apr 2019
Noor Al Yemen triumphed in the 45th edition of the Bukhatir Premier League after an enthralling 13 run win over Chemie Tech in the final at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday.
Waleed Bukhatir, Vice-Chairman of the Sharjah Cricket Club and Mazhar Khan, manager of Sharjah Cricket Club, were present at the final and gave away the prizes.
Chemie Tech made the biggest mistake of inviting Noor to take first strike after winning the toss.
Noor’s batting has been their strong point with scores of 300 plus in the quarterfinals and semi-finals.
So it was a case of Chemie Tech playing with fire and they paid the price for it. Although their bowlers did extremely well to bowl out Noor for 215 their batsmen could have done better to chase down those runs.
Chemie Tech had to settle for Dhs10,000 while Noor walked away with Dhs 15,000 as winners.
Former UAE captain Rohan Mustafa was Noor’s man of the match in the final after top scoring with 56 and returning an economical bowling spell of 10-2-13-1.
Rohan and semi-final hero Zawar Farid gave Noor just the start they needed. In 2.1 overs they scored 26 runs before Zawar’s stumps were sent cartwheeling by Amir Hayat.
One down batsman Dawood Ejaz (5) was caught and bowled by Asif Mumtaz but Shahan Akram and Rohan helped themselves to half centuries as Noor crossed the 100 run mark.
Chemie Tech were back in the match after Rohan was run out for 56 (6x4, 1x6) and Shahan fell to the Best Bowler of the Tournament Adeel Malik for 50 (1x6, 1x4).
In walked Noor’s star batsman Muhammad Usman who had scored 197 in the quarterfinal but Amir Hayat got rid of him quickly for only 13.
With dangerous batsmen like Farid and Muhammad Usman back in the pavilion Chemie Tech could breathe easy.
Khushdil Shah chipped in with 25 but credit must go to the Chemie Tech bowlers Amir Hayat (3-59) and Adeel Malik (3-22) for keeping Noor in check.
But Chemie Tech made a mess of their chase. They lost Asif Khan (0) and Sapandeep Singh (1) early and with the run out of their mainstay batsman Waqas Ali (12) who was later adjudged the Best Batsman of the Tournament, all hell broke loose.
Ashfaq Ahmed (46), Adeel Malik (30) and Mohammad Boota (27) tried to keep the team within striking distance and Sandeep Singh (42) also gave them a glimmer of hope but that spark was missing which could take the team past the line.
