Future Mattress became the first champions of the Sharjah 100 held at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday beating InterGlobe Marine in the final. The clash between the strong finalists had everything that made the 100-ball cricket introduced by Sharjah Cricket to live up to its glory.
Future Mattress restricted the strong InterGlobe Marine to 116 for 9 in 100 balls through fine three wicket spells from Akif Raja and Uzair Khan. Chasing the target, Future Mattress slipped to 26 for 4 but Fayyaz Ahmed carried his team to the target through a sparkling 55 off 36 balls with four boundaries and three sixes to record a four-wicket win in 89 balls.
This innovative tournament proved to be a success with many matches ending as edge of the seat thrillers and almost everyone counting the number of balls for the first time rather than the number of overs. Ronak Panoly of Future Mattress won the Player of the Tournament award while InterGlobe Marine skipper Yasir Kaleem bagged the best batter award.
Future Mattress won the toss and elected to field. InterGlobe Marine’s star opener Asif Khan got out for 10 to the eighth ball of the match from Akif Raja. He got caught behind by wicketkeeper Abdul Shakoor at the score on 12. Sandeep Singh, fresh from his match winning knock of 85 against Karwan Cricket Club that took InterGlobe into the final, fell at the score on 54, clean bowled by Uzair Khan for 25.
Skipper Yasir Kaleem top scored with 31 runs and took the score to 83 in 64 balls before falling to Muhammad Azhar, stumped by wicketkeeper Abdul Shakoor. At the score of 91, InterGlobe Marine lost the valuable wicket of Basil Hameed, caught by Rohan Mustafa off Uziar Khan, for 19. Though Touqeer Riyasat and Vishnu Sukumaran took the score past the 100-run mark, Riyasat fell at the score on 111 to the 94th ball, bowled by Uzair Khan for 8. One run later, Umer Farooq followed, run out for 1. At the same score, Shahnawaz Khan got caught by wicketkeeper Abdul Shakoor off Akif Raja for a duck.
InterGlobe Marine’s innings came to a quick end when Danish Qureshi got bowled by Akif Raja for a duck. Vishnu Sukumaran, who held on to score 18 runs, got run out to the 100th ball and InterGlobe Marine was restricted to 116 for 9 in 100 balls.
Chasing the easy target, Future Mattress lost Ronak Panoly, their star batsman and the hero of many matches, for 5. Danish Qureshi, who has the reputation of picking early wickets, removed Panoly by having him caught behind by wicketkeeper Sandeep Singh for 5.
One-drop Abdul Shakoor got bowled by Mohammad Taimoor for 1. When Mohammad Taimoor also got Dawood Ejaz caught behind by wicketkeeper Sandeep Singh for a duck and the score read 14 for 3 in 14 balls, it looked like InterGlobe Marine had placed themselves on the path to victory.
To make matters worse, Rohan Mustafa got run out for 8. Then Fayyaz Ahmed and Syed Haider Shah took up the challenge. They pulled their team out of trouble through a stubborn partnership of 78 runs partnership for the fifth wicket. Fayyaz Ahmed cracked a brilliant 55 before falling leg before to Basil Hameed. One run later, Usman got out to Touqeer Riyasat for a duck.
Umair Ali hit an unbeaten 12 and provided good support to Syed Haider Shah, who scored an unbeaten 28, and took the team to their target in 89 balls. In fact, Umair Ali ended the tournament in style, hitting the 88th ball for a six to long-on off Riyasat and the 89th delivery for a boundary to fine leg.
Brief scores:
Future Mattress bt InterGlobe Marine by 4 wkts. InterGlobe Marine 116 for 9 in 100 balls (Sandeep Singh 25, Yasir Kaleem 31, Akif Raja 3 for 26, Uzair Khan 3 for 14) Future Mattress 119 for 6 in 89 balls (Fayyaz Ahmed 55, Syed Haider Shah 28n.o, Mohammad Taimoor 2 for 13)
Player of the Match: Fayyaz Ahmed