Dubai: The Danube Lions earned the honour of winning UAE’s two most prestigious 50-over A division tournaments. They followed their victory in the Bukhatir League 50 over A division tournament in Sharjah by winning the Al Hammad A division tournament in Abu Dhabi.
Danube team, which has also swept the Ramadan Cup indoor tournaments titles, has thus become the only team to win the maximum number of tournaments in the UAE this season.
Speaking to Gulf News after winning the Al Hammad A division tournament title, Anees Sajan, the Managing Director of the Danube Group and team owner, said: “It is a great honour to win two back to back 50 over tournaments especially the coveted Bukhatir League Cup and Al Hammad Cup. This is Danube’s 14th consecutive victory in 50 over tournaments and we want to continue our winning run.”
The victory in the Al Hammad tournament was a hard fought one against the strong Ibsons team. So intense was the contest that despite the match being a 50 over contest, it was impossible to predict the outcome till the last over.
Danube won by a slender margin of 10 runs and it helped them retain the Al Hammad Cup which they had won last year too.
Put into bat by Ibsons, Danube posted a challenging 232 runs in 47.5 overs through three half centuries from their top batsmen. Pakistan Test star Assad Shafique top scored with 66 runs off 80 balls with four boundaries, opener Kamran Gulam hit 60 runs from 54 balls with ten boundaries and T. Mendis chipped in with 57 runs off 83 balls.
Chasing the total, Ibsons lost early wickets. Gulam sparkled with the ball too by clean bowling opener Faizan Asif for 26 and also cleans bowling the experienced captain Baber Malek for 19. Zahoor Khan who was whacked for 30 runs in the first three overs came back strongly in his second spell and picked four wickets for 44 runs and restricted Ibsons to 222 runs in 49.1 over.