Salian & Raina help Jumeirah emerge Mammoths League champions

Dubai - Chasing 168 for victory Jumeirah were down in the dumps after having lost five of their top six batsmen to Ranjeet Chavan and Deepak Patel.

Man of the match Sujit Salian and Sandeep Raina lifted Jumeirah Mammoths from a hopeless position of 36 for 5 wickets to beat Zabeel Mammoths by 2 wickets in the final of the Dubai Cricket Council's 9th Ramadan League of Mammoths tournament at the Sevens ground in Dubai.
Chasing 168 for victory Jumeirah were down in the dumps after having lost five of their top six batsmen to Ranjeet Chavan and Deepak Patel.
Sandeep Raina who held one end up as wickets tumbled at the other found a suitable ally in Sujit. Together they stitched an invaluable 94 run partnership to take Jumeirah closer to the victory target.
Sandeep missed his half century by three runs after he fell plumb to Deepak but Sujit kept up the momentum.
With little support from Janaka Chaturange (7), Kapil Gandhi (9) and Rajesh Thadani (3 not out), he stroked his way to an unbeaten 57 from seven boundaries and saw his team home with three balls to spare.
Ranjeet Chavan was outstanding with the ball for his four wickets.
But he disappointed with the bat taking 23 balls for his 13 runs. So was the case with his opening partner Sunil Raheja who ate up 30 balls for his 21.
That put the pressure on Vijay Mehra and Vinay Tolani and although they tried to up the tempo with a 78 run partnership they began to run out of overs.
Vijay scored 43 from 38 balls and Vinay remained unbeaten on 61 from 45 balls as Zabeel managed only 167.

Brief scores (final): Zabeel 167 for 7 in 25 overs (Vinay Tolani 61 n.o., Vijay Mehra 43, Sunil Raheja 21; Rajesh Thadani 2-36) lost Jumeirah Mammoths 168 for 8 in 24.3 overs (Sujit Salian 57 n.o., Sandeep Raina 47; Ranjeet Chavan 4-40, Deepak Patel 2-21) by 2 wkts. Man of the Match: Sujit Salian of Jumeirah Mammoths. Other winners Best batsman: Mukund Srinivasan of Zabeel Mammoths (3 matches, 108 runs). Best bowler: Bobby Suri of Zabeel Mammoths (3 matches, 6 wickets). Player of the Tournament: Ambey Parwatkar of Nad Al Sheba (3 matches, 64 runs & 4 wickets).