Muscat: AER International beat Arabian Region Travel and Tourism (ARTT) by 3 wickets on March 30th, 2022 at the Oman Cricket Academy to kick-start the final round of fixtures in the 2021/22 Premier Division Season.
Put to bat first after losing the toss, ARTT were bowled out for 190 with 11 balls to spare. Mohsin Qureshi top scored with 46 runs. AER were brilliant on the field and their bowling unit impressed collectively. Jay Ketan bagged three wickets while all of Muzahir Raza, Aamir Kaleem and Syed Amir Ali claimed 2 apiece.
The second innings saw AER chase the target down in 41.1 overs. With the top order wobbling, they found themselves precariously placed at 73/5 at one stage. But a match saving 65-run knock from Kuttiraja S’mugrajan to go with Muzahir Raza’s 45, proved enough to seal the win. Ghazanfar Iqbal, Aqil Khan and Sanjaya Ravindra accounted for all of ARTT’s wickets.
In the league’s next fixture, Yalla Shabab defeated Renaissance by 56 runs.
Electing to bat first, Yalla Shabab made a formidable first innings total of 274/10 in 49 overs. There were valuable contributions across the board, but 2 half-centuries from Muhammed Nadeem and Imran Alam stood out. With the ball, Shahbaz Hussain and Asif Khan picked up 3 wickets apiece for Renaissance while Fawad Ali and Mehdi Hasan finished with 2 each.
In response, Renaissance could only manage 218/7 after their 50 overs. Shubo Pal and Adnan Sulehri matched Nadeem and Alam’s efforts from earlier in the day with 50+ scores of their own, but the rest of the batting cast failed to deliver sufficiently. Dhirubhai Patel, Wasim Ali and Jitenkumar Ramanandi were Yalla Shabab’s top performers in the second phase, all of them ending the day with 2 wickets each.
In the penultimate match of the season, ARTT slumped to their second successive defeat in the space of three days in their game against Majees. Bowling first after winning the toss, Majees were dominant in the powerplay. Both Obaid Ullah and Ashwin Pandya looked excellent and picked up 1 wicket each to leave ARTT at 26/2 after 10 overs. But the demolition job truly began once Khawar Ali was introduced an over later. He single-handedly decimated the entire ARTT batting line-up and proceeded to clean them out for 68 in 26 overs, accounting for all 8 of the remaining wickets in the process.
In the second innings, Majees finished the job in a hurry. They chased the total down in 34 balls, with openers Zeeshan Maqsood and Khurram Khan doing the bulk of the scoring.
In the season’s final encounter on April 2, 2022, Oman Stallions beat Muscat CT by 35 runs.
After winning the toss, the Stallions elected to bat first in what proved to be a high-scoring affair.
Powered by a 199-run partnership between Mehran Khan and Vinayak Shukla, they posted an enormous first innings score of 322/8. Mehran finished on a scintillating 100-ball 134. Vinayak accumulated 86 runs himself. For Muscat CT, Samay Shrivatsava, Ganesh Chandrashekar and Munis Ansari registered 3, 2 and 2 scalps respectively.
Chasing, Muscat CT came close, thanks to half-centuries from Ayaan Khan, Hashir Dafedar andSandeep Goud. However, a lack of wickets in the bank proved to be their undoing. They were bowled out for 287 with 3.3 overs to spare. All of Bilal Khan, Hemalkumar Tandel and Rafi Ullah scalped 3 wickets each for the Stallions.
Oman Stallions were crowned champions of Oman Cricket’s Premier Division 2021/22, having won 12 of their 14 games to collect 24 points. With 20 points, Muscat CT finished as runners-up.
Wasim Ali of Yalla Shabib ended the season as the division’s top-scorer with 508 runs. Samay Shrivatsava of Muscat CT was the leading wicket-taker with 38.
BRIEF SCORES:
Arabian Region Travel and Tourism 190/10 in 48.1 overs (Mohsin Qureshi 46(89) 6 x 4, 1 x 6; Jay Ketan 44/3) lost to AER International Trading 194/7 in 41.1 overs (Kuttiraja S’mugrajan 65(81) 8 x 4, 1 x 6 ; Ghazanfar Iqbal 41/3) by 3 wickets Yalla Shabab 274/10 in 49 overs (Muhammed Nadeem 63(98) 2 x 4, 1 x 6 Imran Alam 52(76) 3 x 4 ; Shahbaz Hussain 52/3 Asif Khan 72/3) beat Renaissance 218/7 in 50 overs (Shubo Pal 74(97) 7 x 4, 1 x 6 Adnan Sulehri 54(43) 5 x 4, 3 x 6 ; Wasim Ali 33/2) by 56 runs
Arabian Region Travel and Tourism 68/10 in 26 overs (Faizan Abdullah 11(41) 2 x 4 ; Khawar Ali 18/8) lost to Majees 72/2 in 5.4 overs (Zeeshan Maqsood 38(14) 4 x 4, 3 x 6 ; Ghazanfar Iqbal 14/1) by 8 wickets Oman Stallions 322/8 in 50 overs (Mehran Khan 134(100) 8 x 4, 11 x 6 Vinayak Shukla 86(76) 5 x 4, 4 x 6 ; Samay Shrivatsava 48/3) beat Muscat CT 287/10 in 46.3 overs (Ayaan Khan 71(91) 3 x 4 Sandeep Goud 64(51) 7 x 4, 1 x 6 ; Hemalkumar Tandel 45/3 Bilal Khan 46/3 Rafi Ullah 72/3) by 35 runs
