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Emirates Greens, Synergy in quarters

DUBAI — Fly Emirates Greens and Synergy qualified for the quarter-finals of the Dubai Super Sixes tournament being played at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

The team of legends, mostly from subcontinent including Wasim Akram, Moin Khan (Pakistan), Rohan Gavaskar, Venkatesh Prasad and Vinod Kambli (India), Lance Klusener (South Africa) and Aravinda de Silva and Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka) will join the teams from the quarter-final stage.

Amjad Javed lead Fly Emirates Greens from the front to beat high-flying Yogi Group by 48 runs in the decider. Yogi Group won the toss and elected to field. Yogi Group were banking on their strong batting line-up and won their previous matches by chasing big totals successfully.

Opener Shaimon Anwar Butt was their star batsman who scored in every match and took the team to victory.

But this time it proved a wrong decision and Emirates who started cautiously and scored only seven in their first over and lost the wicket of Arshad Ali, put up a big total of 73.

In the second over Iqbal bludgeoned 18 runs by hitting a couple of sixes and gave the innings a much-needed momentum. Now Amjad joined Iqbal in the middle and hit three consecutive sixes off the balls he faced. The captain blasted four sixes off the over bowled by hapless Ajmal.

The lanky UAE international plundered 27 runs off the over and set the tone for a big total. Bowling was the weak link for the Yogi Group which was exploited by the Emiartes to the hilt.

Shaimon got the wicket of Amjad after he made 32 off just nine balls. He was well caught by Amonkar at mif-off. Shaimon stuck again in the next over by taking another wicket but it was too late. Emirats set a challenging target of 73 for Yogi Group.

In reply, Yogi Group went for all-out attack as their best batsman Shaimon tried to hit Amjad out of the ground. He hit a boundary but was undone by the swing and was caught at mid-on. After Shiamon’s dismissal, Yogi Group lost wickets at regular intervals.

Captain Swapnil Patil tried his best but failed and now Yogi Group needed 20 runs per over in the remaining three overs. They lost their wickets and could manage only 32 runs. Emirates won the match by huge margin of 48 runs and qualified for the quarter-finals.

Emirates player Arshad Ali said: “It a fun game and all the players are enjoying this short version of the game. Though there is a less crowd but we expect a bigger crowd and lot of families during the quarter-finals.”

Patil said: “In my opinion there should have been less fielders which could have helped teams hit big scores. It is a fun game and people like something different.”

In the other game, Synergy edged past Emirates Islamic Bank by two wickets to reach the quarter-finals. After winning the toss Islamic Bank chose to bat and could manage only 41 runs.

Synergy captain Naeemullah told his players there is no need to go for big shots in the start. But in the end it proved a difficult target and they needed some big hits by their tail-enders to take them to the victory.Shetty was their hero who hit 22 off just 12 balls to save their blushes. He took them to the victory with three balls to spare.

Gulf Oil is the main sponsor for the event while Landmark Group is the associate sponsor. The event is also supported by media partners like Khaleej Times, City 101.6 FM, Star Plus and Star One. Kingfisher Airlines is the travel partner while Dubai Sports City is the venue partner, Media Rotana is the hospitality partner and Edward Steven & Associates is the public relations partner.

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