Shaiman Anwar, one of the top stars of UAE cricket, smashed a brilliant ton to guide Dubai Hawks to their third victory in three matches of the Sharjah Ramadan Cup.
Deciding to bat first against the Alubond Tigers, the Hawks looked in a bit of bother after losing two wickets with only 12 on the board, but Anwar’s blazing, unbeaten 129, coming off only 67 balls, helped the Hawks put 210 for three on the board and then the bowlers did their job, restricting the Alubond Tigers to 199-6 for an 11-run win.
Anwar, whose knock was studded with 12 fours and eight sixes, received admirable support from Shahzad Malik as the UAE international went about rebuilding the innings after the two early losses. Malik contributed a 41-ball 62.
The Alubond Tigers made a spirited start to their run-chase, putting 63 runs on the board in the first five overs with Shahid Siddique (42 off 20 balls) and Rohan Mustafa (45 off 26 balls) putting the Hawks attack to the sword.
Ghulam Shabbir kept the onslaught going, smashing a 36-ball 52, but two wickets in the penultimate over of the innings put a massive dent in their chase and they were left with 20 to get from the final over, which proved a few runs too many.
Multiplex International, who had trounced Ramada Ajman by 92 runs in their last match, also kept their winning start going, thrashing Bukhatir XI by 110 runs with Waqas Ahmed, a centurion in the last match, performing another star turn with the bat.
Ahmed blazed his way to a 34-ball 60, while Abdul Shakoor hit a quickfire 30 off a mere 12 balls as Multiplex International put 194-6 on the board. Ahmed’s batting show, however, was overshadowed by Imran Haider’s brilliant bowling performance, with his 4-16 wrecking the Bukhatir XI innings, who were bowled out for 84 in 11.3 overs.
Fly Emirates, who were thrashed by eight wickets in their opening match by Dubai Hawks, bounced back to down Unicon Real Estate by 19 runs.
Batting first, they put a challenging 158-9 on the board, thanks mainly to Junaid Siddiqui’s 21-ball 34 and an unbeaten 7-ball 17 from Rushaan Karim lower down the order.
Off to a shaky start in their run chase, losing three wickets for 23, Unicon struggled to get their innings back on track and were bowled out for 139 in the final over, with Hazrat Luqman (4-13), Ryan D’Souza (2-24) and Siddiqui (2-23) being the wreckers-in-chief.
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