Jumeirah beat Zabeel to claim League of Mammoths title

Jumeirah Mammoths held their nerve to pull off a 10-run win against Zabeel Mammoths in a closely fought final of the 10th Dubai Cricket Council’s League of Mammoths match at the Sevens ground in Dubai.

Zabeel won the toss and it looked like a good decision to invite Jumeirah to bat first as hard hitting batsman Ambey Parwatkar was run out while his opening partner Mithun Vora departed for 12.

Sandeep Raina (23) and Shiva Pagarani revived the innings with a 31 run partnership before Sandeep was out for 32.

Then Shiva in the company of Nithin Bharatan added 53 crucial runs for the fourth wicket before Hirantha Don removed both batsmen.

Zabeel had their tails up at this stage and with another prolific scorer Sheridan Hadfield (15) back in the pavilion even a total of 150 looked impossible to achieve for Jumeirah.

But as the saying goes never celebrate until the last ball is bowled and rightly so as man of the match Shibith Paddikal changed the complexion of the game with some lofty hits.

His 45 came from just 17 balls and it included four sixes and two boundaries which propelled Jumeirah’s total to a healthy 182.

Zabeel also struggled in their chase and were 73 for 6 wickets when Siddhanth Raina and Navin Oliveira gave them some hope.

Siddhanth upped the ante with two sixes and two fours for his 62 from 45 balls and Navin struck two sixes and a four during his 30 from 24 balls but their efforts proved futile in the end as Sanjay Pathak had already done the early damage with three wickets followed by two each from Ambey Parwatkar and Sheridan Hadfield.


Brief scores: Jumeirah Mammoths beat Zabeel Mammoths by 10 runs

Jumeirah 182 all out in 24.5 overs (Shibith Padikkal 45, Shiva Pagarani 32; Hirantha Don 3-46, Sunil Gagwani 2-29)

Zabeel 172 all out in 24.2 overs (Siddhanth Raina 62, Navin Oliveira 30; Sanjay Pathak 3-26, Ambey Parwatkar 2-26, Sheridan Hadfield 2-40)