Dubai The Pan UAE inter-school tournament, which sowed the seeds of inter schools cricket among girls, held their 11th edition with two of the finest girls schools teams clashing for title in the Under-13 and Under-17 categories.
Winchester School, Jebel Ali and Gems Modern Academy clashed again for the second time successively in the finals of this event.
Gems Modern Academy stamped their authority by emerging the champions in the Under-17 event and Under-13 categories.
It was sweet revenge for Gems Modern as they had lost in the final to Winchester in both age categories last year.
This tournament organised by the Maxtalent Cricket Academy has over the years thrown up many talented players who have gone on to represent the UAE women’s team.
The final was watched by Andy Russel, Emirates Cricket Board’s Cricket Development Manager, who also distributed the prizes.
The matches were played at the Winchester School Jebel Ali ground with nine teams participating in both the age categories.
The Under-13 final was keenly fought with Winchester opting to field after winning the toss. Gems Academy got off to a good start with captain Tirtha Satish cracking an unbeaten 64 runs from 30 balls and help her school post an impressive 132 for 1. Qarar Kaushal played second fiddle with 11 runs.
Chasing the score, Winchester got off to a slow start and lost some early wickets too. Pacer Siya Gokhale struck twice but opening batsman Joan Mariam went on to hit 22 runs. Through well-disciplined bowling Gems restricted, Winchester to 58 for 2 in 10 overs.
The Under-17 final turned out to be a great batting display of two batswomen in Bonifilia Pereria, the skipper of Gems Academy and Namita D’souza of Winchester. Bonifilia cracked 115 off 39 balls along with Aparna (18n.o) to help their team post 201 without being separated in the stipulated 15 overs. Winchester chased through Namita who hit an unbeaten 148 of 54 balls along with Srinidhi Karnunakaran (23) but failed to reach the target. So brilliant was Namita’s batting that it looked like the tournament highest score of 171 scored by Heena Harish of Our Own Girls School Sharjah in the 2016 edition was under threat.
Though Namita tried her best, she could not take her team to the target and got restricted to 197 runs. Tirtha Satish won the player of the tournament award scoring 72 runs in two matches while Namita bagged the Under-17 player of the tournament award for scoring 334 runs total from her four matches.
