Media Release
Doha, Mar 25: Title sponsors M Pallonji defeated GC Stars by 5 wickets in the inaugural match of the 3rd M Pallonji Cricket Tournament 2017 at the West Bay Cricket Complex.
Winning the toss, GC Stars elected to bat first. Openers Shahid and Naveed slammed 39 and 25 runs respectively and gave a brisk start to GC stars who scored 54 runs in the first six overs. Some splendid bowling by Thisuru and Ayub kept the run flow in check and bowled out GC Stars for 143 runs in 19.3 overs. Along with Shahid and Naveed, Zafar with 34 runs was the major contributor. For M Pallonji, Thisuru took 3 wickets for 17 runs, Ayub bagged 3 Wickets for 23 runs, and Naveed and Alban took one wicket each.
In reply, M Pallonji had a shaky start and lost both their openers Amruth and Razik in the first over bowled by Shahid. Chidananda and Neeraj steadied the innings. Chidananda was out for 5 runs in the 5th over. M Pallonji managed to score 46 runs for 3 wickets in the first six overs. Thisuru after shining with the ball, came out to bat and scored 32 runs of 10 balls with five sixes before retiring. Sandhesh with 22 runs and Melroy with 29 runs ensured that M Pallonji reached the target of 149 runs in 14 overs thus winning by five wickets. Shahid took 2 wickets, and Nadeem, Khurram, Parvez and Omar bagged one wicket each. Thisuru was declared the Man of the Match for his all-round performance.
In the other matches, McDonalds defeated Metabo by 24 runs and QALCO beat Tulukoota by 91 runs.
Earlier in the morning, Chidananda, general manager of M Pallonji inaugurated the tournament. QVC officials along with special guests, Liyakat Allie and Ashraful Mohammed from South Africa were present.
Brief scores:
Qalco 203/7 in 20 overs (Suminda 20, Azhar 31, Amir 24, Ifzal 32, Muzammil 33, Rizwan 2 wkts) beat Tulukoota 112/all out in 19.1 overs (Abdul Gani 36, Shukur 21, Majeed 2/7, Ruwan 2/20) by 91 runs.
Man of the match – Azhar of QALCO.
McDonalds 175/9 in 20 overs (Bari 59, Iftikar 21, Haneef 2/39, Shariq 2/36) beat Metabo 151/all out in 18 overs (Asif 55, Shariq 21, Chaminda 2/14, Sudarshan 2/26, Yasir 2/18) by 24 runs.
Man of the match – Iftikar of McDonalds.
GC Stars 143/all out in 19.3 overs (Shahid 39, Naveed 25, Zafar 34, Thisuru 3/17, Ayub 3/23) lost to M Pallonji 149/5 in 14 overs (Thisaru 38, Melroy 29, Sandesh 22, Sahid 2/1, Nadeem, Khurram, Parvez and Omer - one wkt each) by five wickets
Man of the match – Thisuru of M Pallonji