Etihad Airways beat Awali Cricket Club

The visitors, Eithad Airways team, from Abu Dhabi yesterday defeated Awali All Stars 1 by a comfortable six wickets in the first of three matches in a T20 match to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the establishment of Awali Cricket Club at the Awali Oval.

Batting first, Awali were restricted to 138 for the loss of ten wickets after losing Deepak Nair early on to the second ball of the opening over after being caught behind by Santosh Mangali off the bowling of Renish Abdul Qadar.

With opener Ahmed Ismael (39 off 31 deliveries, 5x4, 1x6) and Sanjay Rathod (17 off 26, 3x4) the home side built up a useful partnership of 33 runs before Etihad skipper Sreekant Bhavadasan caught Rathod off the bowling of Kabeer Khan to end the second wicket partnership in the seventh over. The skipper Mohammed Ishtiaq (49 off 30, 5x4, 1x6) then took to the crease and he and Ismael added 58 for the third wicket to 91 for three in the 13th over.

Hereafter  the Awali innings collapsed with no notable contributions though Soji Mathew did smash a six to deny Kabeer Khan a hat-trick. Khan (four for 23) was the pick of the bowlers, with other wickets taken by Ahmed Nadeem (two for 19), Rahil Sada (two for 12), Renish Abdul Qader (one for 14) and Junaid Kalary (one for 33). The visitors in reply started in a rampant mood as openers Kabeer Khan (62 off 20, 3x4, 7x6) and Sohail Khan (52 off 27, 4x4, 4x6) established an opening partnership of 109 in seven overs before Vijay Sailor (hit for five sixes) then claimed his wicket off the final ball of the over with a smart catch from Joes Xavier to dismiss K.Khan.

With the match won secure and beyond doubt, Ismael took a smart catch off Rathod with the score at 119 for two in the ninth over to dismiss S.Khan.

The visitors reached the target scoring 142 for four in just 12.2 overs despite good bowling efforts by slow bowlers Rathod (two for 26) and B S Bisht (one for 19).

Etihad Airways team manager Mohammed Zaheer said, “We like playing and welcomed at Awali and have a good relationship with the club. We had high expectations of a victory and look forward to the next 50 over and 30 over matches.” He continued, “The two teams have played before and have a good relationship when in 2009 Etihad Airways visited Awali and last year Awali played us in two matches at the Emirates Palace Hotel on turf on the corniche. It is a different ball game playing on grass rather than sand and that venue was excellent,” said Zaheer.

Players of the match were Ishtiaq for Awali and K.Khan for Etihad. Today the Awali Camels will be captained by Sanjay Rathod in a 50 over match against the tourits from 8am.