Abu Dhabi: Despite some late dramatics on Friday the 13th, Arab Udupi emerged as champions in the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council's prestigious Division A tournament by virtue of losing lesser wickets against Seven Seas in the final.

After Arab Udupi had scored 265 for 7 in their 50 overs, Seven Seas's run chase ended at 255 for 9 in 50 overs, 10 short of their rivals. The closely-contested final then saw some drama as Arab Udupi took more than the allotted time to bowl their 50 overs and hence the ADCC's tournament committee added 10 runs to the Seven Seas score which made it a tie.

But Arab Udupi were named the champions as they had lost only seven wickets in comparison to Seven Seas' nine and the hoteliers celebrated with the trophy, their fourth triumph in this premier event for A division teams but also open to invited B Division teams.

"We are very happy to win this ADCC A Division title which is in its inaugural year. Earlier, it was the NMC Trophy and we had won it thrice," said S.B Shetty, owner of the Arab Udupi chain of restaurants across the UAE.

"The players have been with us for a long time and some of them are guest players but have been very consistent and Friday's win was after a tough battle with a strong rival team," added Shetty, who has been running the cricket teams for well over two decades now.

For Arab Udupi, Naeemuddin Aslam was the top scorer, falling one short of his half century. Safdar Niazi slammed 42 from 33 balls.

For Seven Seas, Fayyaz Ahmed (89) and Mohsin Irshad (50) shared a 123-run stand for the sixth wicket which helped them recover from 92 for five in the 21st over. Fayyaz hit four sixes and four fours in his 87-ball knock.

Davender Taneja picked four for 32 from his 10 overs to finish with 16 wickets in the tournament and win the Best Bowler Award. Vikrant Shetty took three for 42 from eight overs to help Arab Udupi restrict their rivals in the run chase.

Nitin Gopal of Avis Rent-a-Car was named Man of the Tournament while Mohammad Asif of Seven Seas with 393 runs was named Best Batsman of the event.