Ibsons, UBL storm ahead

Ibsons and United Bank Limited (UBL) kept their unbeaten records with contrasting victories in the Al Aqili Twenty20 Ramadan Cup played at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Ibsons scored 106-run win over Robt Stone while the bankers were given a scare before snatching victory over the young Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) Greens with a ball to spare. Kamran Shehzad, the opening bowler claimed three wickets while Pervaiz Nair and Fayyaz Ahmed grabbed three each to send Robt Stone to 76 all out in reply to Ibsons’ 182 for eight. Qazi Ayub took UBL from the brink to a thrilling win. The veteran all-rounder smashed Chirag Suri over the ropes to secure his team’s second win. Earlier Moaaz (29 not out off 29 balls) blasted two sixes and a four to push ECB’s score to 124 for five. Suri anchored the inning with 54 off 51 deliveries. Royal Gymkhana’s hopes of moving beyond the group stage took a dip after Nissan Al Masaood sent them crashing to their second defeat in Group C. Wings win Wings XI thrashed Fly Emirates by 117 runs in the 2nd Interface Ramadan Cup held by the Dubai Cricket Council in the Interface Transworld sponsored tournament played at the ICC Global Cricket Academy on Thursday. Wings XI, established a year back, bolstered ahead from the bat of Rizwan Amanat and bowler Nizar Abbas. Rizwan made a swashbuckling 72 runs in 45 balls in which he struck nine sixes and three fours to lay the foundation for a big score. Small cameos by Gulbodin Naib 20 runs in 10 balls and Riaz Afridi 16 runs in 7 balls saw Wings pile up 208 runs in their 20 overs. Arshad Ali finished as the most successful bowler with three wickets for 28 runs. In reply, Fly Emirates suffered a double blow as both their openers Mohammed Iqbal and Amjad Javed was bowled by Afghanistans all-rounder Gulbodin Naib with only 13 runs on the board. A battling 25 runs partnership between tail-enders Fawad Syed who scored 16 runs and Gameel Gamlath who gave Fawad company making 5 runs saw Fly Emirates end their innings on 91 runs to see Wings XI victorious by a huge margin of 117 runs. Easy win for Yogi Shaimon Butt scored a quickfire half century as Yogi Group comfortably sealed a nine-wicket victory over Afghan Kabul in the 4th Al Dhaid Ramadan Tournament played under lights at the Al Dhaid Cricket Village. Opting to bat on winning the toss, Afghan Kabul rued their decision as they lost their top order batsmen cheaply. Altaf scored 48 from 44 balls consisting of a lone boundary and a six and Kareem made 23 off 21 deliveries including two boundaries as Afghan Kabul managed to achieve 112 for seven in the allotted 20 overs. From gulftoday .