(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Assarain's reign on domestic top-flight league continued as skipper Zeeshan Maqsood and Co secured the 2017-18 Oman Cricket Premier Division title for the third successive year on Friday.
The title hat-trick was achieved on a day when Assarain was not in action, having finished its league engagement a week earlier, with a 144-run win over Al Turki, in its concluding game.
Enhance had a chance to topple the defending champion on Friday but it needed a big margin to achieve it against Al Turki NMC. However, Enhance failed to win by the desired margin to hand Assarain an incredible third title in a row.
Enhance was restricted to a paltry 149 in 37.2 overs with Jay Odedra picking four for 31. In reply, Al Turki chased down the target in 38 overs scoring 155 for eight. Twinkal Bhandari hit 54 while Jignesh Patel made an unbeaten 41.
Enhance finished with 31 points while Assarain topped the table with 36 from 12 games.
And on Saturday, Muscat CT pushed Enhance to the third spot after registering a 44-run win over Passage to India Restaurant to finish as runner-up. Both
Muscat and Enhance picked 31 points from 12 games but the former ended with a better net run-rate (+0.390) after Saturday's win while Enhance had +0.277.
Munis Ansari was the star for Muscat with a six-wicket haul for 49 as Passage was bowled out for 211 in 45 overs in its chase.
Earlier, Muscat had scored 255 for seven in 50 overs. Shoaib Khan hammered a century (124) to help Muscat post a challenging target. Ayaan Khan was the other main run-getter with 43.
Passage ended its season at fourth place with 18 points to edge Al Turki on better net run-rate, after the latter also finished with 18.
'It is great to win the third title on a trot. The team's self-belief and players' confidence on the field have been key to our success,' Assarain's team manager Vinu Mathew told Muscat Daily on Saturday.
'We are delighted to have bagged Premier Division hat-trick, a rare achievement in domestic cricket in recent times. I congratulate the players for this terrific feat.'
'The success has a lot to do with our policy of sticking with a core group of players together over the years. The players have gelled together to reap the success,' said Mathew.
Mathew admitted that the title fight was a close affair and his team also missed the services of its four players – Zeeshan Maqsood, Kaleemullah,
Mohammed Nadeem and Naseem Khushi - who were on international duty at the ICC WCL Division Two tournament in Namibia earlier this month.
'We did feel a bit of impact but we had trust in our bench strength. Moreover, the players believed in themselves and played their hearts out,' he said.
Skipper Maqsood said, 'To win the crown three times in a row is an amazing feeling and I am proud to have led the wonderful bunch of boys.'
Assarain managing director Sheikh Ibrahim al Wahaibi congratulated the team and its support staff on the success.
For Assarain, Arun Poulose and Shahan Akram emerged as its leading batsmen with 302 and 301 runs respectively, while Kaleemullah, who bowled superbly for Oman during the recently-concluded ICC World Cricket League Division Two event, was the highest wicket-taker with 15 wickets.
Vinukumar Gopalkrishnan was the next best bowler with 13 while Akram came up with top allround performance with 12 wickets and 301 runs. Sindo Michael also impressed with his allround display, having picked 12 wickets and slammed 208 runs.
Brief scores: Friday: Enhance 149 all out in 37.2 overs (Noorul Riaz 48, Ahmad Fayyaz Butt 25; Odedara 4-31, Adnan ul Huq Hussain 2-32) lost to Al Turki NMC 155-8 in 38 overs (Bhandari 54, Patel 41 n.o.; Nester Dhamba 3-24, Mazhar Alam 2-19, Sanuth Ebrahim 2-23).
Saturday: Muscat CT 255-7 in 50 overs (Shoaib Khan 124, Ayaan Khan 43; Mohammed Zahir Siddiqui 2-42, Syed Amir Kaleem 2-55) beat Passage to India 211 all out in 45 overs (Zahir Siddiqui 77 n.o., Zeeshan Siddiqui 38; Ansari 6-49).
factbox 'One bad game cost us trophy'
Enhance, which till Friday was in race for the title, finally had to settle for a third-place finish on Saturday as Muscat pipped it for the runner-up spot.
A disappointed team manager, Guru Prasanna, admitted that 'one bad game on Friday cost us the trophy'.
Ahead of its concluding match against Al Turki,
Enhance was breathing down the neck of Assarain. With 31 points and some brilliant performances in the season, Enhance was looking forward to its maiden title with a big victory on Friday.
'One bad day and it changed the whole thing for us. Sad day, but sometimes things are not in our hands,' said Prasanna.
Ahead of Friday's game, Enhance had a net run-rate of +0.413 but the loss pushed it down to +0.277.
Muscat, which won on Saturday, had gone into the game with a net run-rate of +0.337 but the win helped it finish with a net run-rate of +0.390 to clinch the runner-up trophy from Enhance.
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