Netherlands and UAE win their games at Desert T20 Challenge

Match Report Desert T20 Challenge

Another exciting day at Desert T20 Challenge 2017 comes to an end. Once again two games were played and both went to wire. Earlier Netherlands beat Oman and after that game Hosts (United Arab Emirates) win their match against Namibia at last ball of the match. After an exciting beginning of Desert T20 last day, another fantastic cricket due and teams did wonderful job to prove themselves competitive ones to each other.

In Afternoon match, Oman won the toss and opted to bat first on batting friendly pitch. Oman couldn’t utilize conditions what they desired, they kept losing wickets. Only Zeeshan Maqsood at top order made a good contribution, he made 34 runs off 31 balls; rest of top five weren’t impressive with their batting. At one time Oman was 6 for 89 in 15th over and it was understandable that they will not make a huge or competitive total. On seventh wicket Khurram Nawaz and Naseem Khushi put 57 runs off 35 balls, and finished the innings at 146 for 7. Naseem Khushi made 25 and went for more runs on the last ball of innings could only find Borren. While Khurram remained unbeaten on 26. Five bowlers from Netherlands took one wicket each.

When they returned to chase down 147, Netherlands lost two early wickets in first over. Cooper and Myburgh two big guns back in the hut, it seemed to be tough for them. 97 runs partnership at third wicket by Rippon (40) and Baressi (48) put Netherlands in a strong position. Game once again turned towards Oman, when both set batsmen were sent back to pavilion at 101. It was any one’s match, but Van Der Merwe rescued Dutch team and made quick 35 in 15 balls with six boundaries finished the game on second ball of last over. Bilal Khan and Mohammad Nadeem took 2 wickets each for Oman. Rippon was awarded as a player of the match.

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In evening match, Hosts UAE holds nerves and wins on the last ball of the match. After winning the toss Namibia decided to bat first could only post 152 runs in their all 20 overs. Wicket keeper batsman Kotze made 50 off 42 balls with the help of 3 fours and 2 sixes. While their captain also contributed in team’s total with quick 32 runs. Mohammad Naveed of emirates bowled exceptionally well and got 3 wickets and Zahoor Faruqui was the man who dragged Namibia back with two important wickets of Kotze and Sarel Burger.

When UAE started their run chase, it was looked all easy for them until they Rohan Mustafa. UAE was doing well, when Mustafa and Shaiman Anwer was batting together. It was halted when Mustafa was run-out at 56 runs, thenafter runs dried up and match went to the last over when UAE required 7 runs to win the match.

After getting 6 runs on 4 balls of final over, Shaiman tried to win it in style and hits it to mid-on where fielder drops a sitter. Shaiman tried to get final run but a good throw by Erasmus made Shaiman way out of his crease. After that run out batsman crossed in the result and Mohammad Usman was to face last ball. It all went to the last ball when UAE required 1 more run to cross over the line. Usman did flick the ball toward mid-wicket and made emirates winner of an exciting match.

Mohamamd Naveed was awarded as a player of the match.

Full Fixture here