The Emirates D20 League has almost reached its final stages. With just a few games left, teams need to up their game if they want to have any chance of promoting themselves to the semi-finals. The 25th of June saw four teams fight for a semi-final spot.
Let’s look at the match report of those two games.
Match 27: Fujairah vs Abu Dhabi
In the first match on 25th June, the table-toppers went head to head with Abu Dhabi. The Fujairah team had already qualified for the semi-final and hence came into this game with massive confidence. It was a crucial game for Abu Dhabi as they are at number five on the table. They had to win this game in order to move into the top four.
However, unfortunately, they couldn’t win the game. After winning the toss, Fujairah chose to field and made a massive 187/5 on the back of three significant contributions. Hamdan Tahir (40), Usman Khan (50) and Zeeshan Abid (48) came up with great knocks to take the team total to a high.
While chasing such a big total, the Abu Dhabi team could not match the quality of Fujairah’s batters and could only manage 141/8 on the scoreboard. Atta Ur Rahim (57) and Naik Muhammad (23) were two of their best batters on the day. Usman Khan from the Fujairah team took two wickets and was the main bowler from the winning side.
Fujairah: 187/5
Usman Khan: 50(38), Zeeshan Abid: 48(22)
Usman Khan: 1-9-2, Muhammad Waseem: 1-2-1
Abu Dhabi: 141/8
Atta Ur Rahim: 57(47), Naik Muhammad: 23(18)
Shah Faisal: 4-46-2, Atta Ur Rahim: 3-42-2
Match 28: Sharjah vs Emirates Blues
In the second match of the day, the second-placed team, Sharjah were up against Emirates Blues. It was a must-win game for Emirates Blues if they wanted to have a chance of semi-final qualification. Emirates did just that, and now wait for other teams to play their games.
After winning the toss, Sharjah elected to bat first. They hoped to get a good score on the board but were outclassed by Emirates bowlers. They could only manage 102/10 and were all out in 19.1 overs. Abdul Shakoor (45) and the captain Fayyaz Ahmad (24) came up with the notable contributions for the team. It was Adithya Shetty (4-9-5) and Sanchit Sharma (4-27-3) who brought the Sharjah team to their knees.
Chasing this small target turned out to be pretty easy for the Emirates Blues and they got to the finishing line in just 17 overs. Nilansh Keswani (32) and Dhruv Parashar (19) were the top scorers for the team.
Sharjah: 102/10
Abdul Shakoor: 45(46), Fayyaz Ahmad: 24(25)
Simranjeet Singh Kang: 4-19-3, Aayan Khan: 4-22-1
Emirates Blues: 103/7
Nilansh Keswani: 32(32), Dhruv Parashar: 19(30)
Adithya Shetty: 4-9-5, Sanchit Sharma: 4-27-3
