Published on Jun 18 2010 by Athar Naseer

 

The 2nd Masroor International T20 Cricket Tournament took place over the weekend and teams from as far as Australia, Canada & the USA successfully avoided the ash cloud to participate in the prestigious event. England entered 2 Teams into the competition and Baitul Futuh Region were well represented with 10 Khuddam selected across both teams.

England won both their group games against Ireland & Umair X1 with notable performances from Batsman Abid Ahmed (Baitul Futuh) & Fast Bowler Navid Hanif (Morden). USA were dismissed in the Quarter-Finals with further good performances from young spin bowler Shakir Mahmood (Morden) and a disciplined innings by the experienced Irfan Ahmad (Morden) saw England through to the Semi-Finals where they would meet the current holders, Canada. The Semi-Final took place at 8.00am on Sunday morning with the Canadians batting first; they were restricted to 120 runs by some good bowling from the Baitul Futuh duo of Shakir & Naveed. England chased down the target for the loss of 3 wickets and qualified for the Final with relative ease.

England ‘A’ also progressed through the group stage with victories over Holland & Switzerland. A fine performance from fast bowler Adnan Saqib (Morden) cast aside the Aussies in the Quarter-Final setting up a Semi-Final clash with rivals Germany. Germany batted first and amassed a huge total of 196. England 'A' lost early wickets and looked to be falling flat when in came 19 year old Khizer Ahmed (Worcester Park), who quickly set about bludgeoning the German bowlers. He rapidly increased the score hitting 4 sixes in a 19 ball 48. Unfortunately the run chase fell 10 runs short and the crowd were left wondering what could have been an all England Final. However, the team won a consolation prize by defeating Canada in the 3rd place play off which was decided by a super over. Qadir Ahmad also from Baitul Futuh bowled the crucial one over and received the man of the match award for his efforts.

The Final was contested by hosts England and 'local' rivals Germany. England were all out for 132 after some disciplined bowling and a mini batting collapse of the England tail. Considering Germany's previous score in the Semi-Final, the general opinion was that the runs would be easily knocked off. However, a master-class in spin bowling restricted the Germans who required 13 runs from the last over. Spin was the choice for the final over drawing parallels with Pakistan's dramatic exit from the ICC T20 in the Caribbean and so it was to be a similar result with Germany achieving their target with one ball to spare... England can be proud of their display in finishing runners up and especially the Baitul Futuh contingent, most notably Shakir Mahmood & Khizer Ahmed who received the award from Huzur Aqdas (atba) for Best Bowler and Best Fielder of the Tournament respectively.

The Khuddam National Cricket Tournament is next up with the Region highly motivated in what could be the final year some our Khuddam play together on the same team...