MUSCAT: Oman Stallions beat Muscat CT by 35 runs in a thriller to clinch the Oman Premier League 2021-22 title at the Oman Cricket Academy ground in Al Amerat on Saturday.
Oman Stallions completed the League proceedings with 24 points from 14 matches to top the points table. Muscat CT finished runners-up with 20 points from 14 matches in the eight-team league.
Renaissance were third with 16 points on better net run-rate (0.6755) over Majees (0.3816) who also had 16 points.
Another team from the same ownership or Oman Stallions, Yalla Shabab claimed the fifth spot with 16 points with a net run-rate of 0.3382.
For Chaitanya Khimji, the owner of Oman Stallions and Yalla Shabab, it was an unprecedented sweep of all title on offer in the Oman Cricket domestic circuit.
Chaitanya’s Ruwi Rangers (Yalla Shabab) had bagged the D20 and D10 championships earlier.
The Sanuth Ebrahim-captained team dominated the short formats and thrashed Qurum Thunders by eight wickets in the final of D10 to win the title on March 22.
In January, Ruwi Rangers (Yalla Shabab) thumped Darsait Titans by 80 runs to claim the D20 top honours.
Chaitanya was elated after the grand success.
“This has been a dream come true for me. Clean sweep of all three Oman Cricket titles is first one of a kind. I am so very happy with both my teams Oman Stallions and Yalla Shabab who have given me a gift of a life time. I am very thrilled, kudos to the teams!,” the veteran cricket enthusiast said.
Vinu Mathew, team manager of Oman Stallions and Yalla Shabab, said this is a remarkable achievement for a team management.
“Sweeping all three titles were fantastic. Our team players had put up their level best performance in the highly-competitive three formats. We believed in our players and they delivered,” Vinu said.
SPARKLING TON
At the OCA grounds on Saturday, Oman Stallions, who were two points ahead of Muscat CT with 22 points, needed to raise their net run-rate to keep the title in their grip.
Winning the toss, Stallions suffered a poor start and were struggling at 74 for 5 wickets in 19.3 overs.
Mehran Khan, then played a match-changing innings of 134 from 100 balls, which included 11 sixers and eight fours.
Mehran and Vinay Shukla (86 – 76 balls, 5×4, 4×6) put the team back in the driving seat with their 199-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
Both of them ensured the championship for Stallions after reaching a net run-rate of 2.0342.
Rafi Ullah chipped in with an eight-ball 17 in the final overs as Stallions posted a commanding 322 for eight in 50 overs.
Samay Shrivastava took 3-48 in his 10 overs while Ganesh Chandrashekhar bagged 3 wickets giving away 61 runs.
In reply, Muscat CT also had a poor start by losing top three wickets for 52 runs inside first 10 overs.
They recovered to 170-5 in 28.4 overs due to a 105-run partnership between Ayaan Khan (71) and Hashir Dafedar (56) for the fifth wicket.
In the final stages, Sandeep Goud staged a lone battle to score 64 but Bilal Khan castled through his defence to end the Muscat CT campaign at 287 in 46.3 overs.
Bilal (3-46), Hemalkumar Tandel (3-45) and Rafi Ullah (3-71) were among the wickets for the champions.
