Azhar Gul steers Old Hawks to Big 40 title

Dubai - At one stage Old Hawks were struggling at 59 for 6

Azhar Gul almost single-handedly helped Old Hawks to a thrilling three-run win over Dubai Mammoths in the final of the third Big 40 Cricket League.
Old Hawks won the toss and elected to bat. Ayub Iqbal and Shakeel Ahmed did give them a decent start but Devendra Taneja put paid to their hopes of a big partnership when he removed both openers, each scoring 11 respectively.
Taneja was at his destructive best in also removing one-down batsman Himanshu Yadav as Old Hawks were reeling at 3 for 34.
CTK Masood carried on the good work done by Taneja with two scalps of Sohail Bilal (13) and Ashir Hasnain (0), while Shiva Pagarani removed Mohammed Ilyaz as Old Hawks were looking down the barrel midway through the game at 59 for 6.
But in came Gul and he not only steadied the innings but ended up playing a vital and match-winning unbeaten knock of 51 which came from 41 balls and contained three fours.Gopal Jasapara threw his bat around in the closing stages to collect 15 crucial runs from 13 balls as Old Hawks posted 134 for 7 in 25 overs. Not a big task though but Dubai Mammoths stuttered and stumbled to fall short of their target, despite a good start from Biju Thomas (12) and Prajakat Chouhan (27).
But Gopal was instrumental in sending Thomas and one-down Prashant Braggs (3) back to the pavilion to raise Old Hawks' hopes.
Ali Asad (23) and Anand Ramaswami did stitch a good sixth wicket partnership of 48 runs to bring the team closer to their target.