MUSCAT: An utterly dominant BCC beat Ashes by five wickets to win the BCL second edition (morning league) title on Saturday.
BCC won the toss and sent Ashes to bat in the final played under floodlights at Oman International Cricket Turf ground in Al Amerat.
BCC's Sarath Kumar (2-19) bowling with his fiery pace ran through Ashes top order before another pacer Mohammed Shoaib (2-18) castled out middle and lower order. Only Alif Juval (52 from 42 balls ) from Ashes could resist the high quality bowling attack to some extent to take his side to 101 which ended up not being enough for BCC's power packed batting line-up.
Needing 102, BCC lost their opener Thameem very early in chase but Ajay fired another shot (38 of 34 balls) and Mohammed Kabeer (14 not out of 15 balls) came together for a second wicket partnership to take their side to glory. The target was chased comfortably with 2 overs to spare. Ajay was adjudged as the man of the final.
Ajay from BCC was also declared man of the tournament for his brilliant batting performance. Shahil Mohammed of Sabco was named best bowler whereas Rehmat Ali from UGB Barka was awarded with best fielder of the tournament.
Mohammad Riaz, the owner of Mohammed Riaz & Partners LLC, was chief guest for the grand finale of BCL-2, where the winners and runners-up trophies were handed by him to the respective captains.
Guests Ahmed Shariff (Manager Sarooj Water), Azra Aleem, Mohammad Aleem Anis, Murad Ali, Muzaffer Shiralkar and Nasir congratulated all the players. The BCL committee thanked their sponsors, organisers, all of their participating teams, support staff and volunteers for making the event successful with their efforts.
Brief scores: Ashes 101-7 in 16 overs (Alif Juval 52, Ragesh Kumar 19; Sarath Kumar 2-19, Mohammed Shoaib 2-18) lost to BCC 103-5 in 14 overs (Ajay 37, Mohammed Kabeer 14; Rahul Prakash 2-35 and Manoj Kumar 2-20 by five wickets.
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