MUSCAT: EY Muscat has won the fifth EY Interoffice Mena cricket tournament which concluded on November 26 at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
It was a very well contested and fought tournament between 8 EY offices — Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Khobar, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kuwait and Bahrain.
The tournament was played in accordance with the ICC T20 rules. The format adopted was a round robin where all the participating teams were divided into two groups and the top two teams of each group clashed in the semifinals. EY Muscat remained unbeaten throughout the tournament. In their journey up to the final, Muscat defeated Jeddah, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The semifinal was played between EY Muscat and EY Dubai. EY Muscat put up a total of 145-6 (Omar 71, Nayaz 43) and restricted EY Dubai to 109-4 (Pankaj, Nayaz, Vishak and Alkesh took 1 wicket each).
The final was played between EY Muscat and EY Al Khobar. EY Muscat batsmen put up a huge total of 183-3 (Saud 62 runs, Vikram 55 runs) and restricted EY Al Khobar to 122-6 (Vishak 3 wickets, Alkesh, Pankaj and Inayat took 1 wicket each). In the history of this tournament, this was the first time that the semifinal and the final was played inside the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.
The EY Muscat team comprised of the following players: Standing back: Abbas Rizvi, Madhu Babu, Alkesh Joshi (Captain), Vishak Jayakumar, Vikram Verma, Omar Sarfaraz, Thiyagu Subramanian.
Front row: Mohamed Nayaz, Pankaj Gupta, Arun Thopil, Saud Haroon, Inayat Balsania.
Alkesh Joshi, captain of EY Muscat said: “We were the smallest office among the other offices. It is great to have won the cup again after 2012. I think the biggest take away from this tournament was the teaming spirit of EY offices. We truly demonstrated what highest performing teams look like and in the process contributing towards building a better working world.”
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