Bahrain beat the UAE by three runs in a last-ball thriller in their final group game of the Gulf Cricket T20I Championship 2023 at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium in Doha yesterday.
But the victory over a team that had won four games on the trot coming into this match turned out to be bittersweet as Bahrain failed to qualify for today’s final with Oman, who defeated Kuwait by 68 runs late last night, pipping the kingdom’s team on better net run-rate (NRR) despite finishing with the same number of points (6), to set up a clash for the title with the UAE.
Still, Bahrain should find solace in the fact that this was their third successive win in the tournament and that they upstaged a team that regularly plays top-tier international sides and has world-class cricket grounds and facilities.
Yet no one could have predicted this victory as the UAE, chasing a par target of 151 off 20 overs, stumbled in their run-chase and entered the last over needing just 11 runs with three wickets in hand.
Star fast bowler Rizwan Butt, who returned successive four-wicket hauls in the previous two games, was entrusted the task of bowling the last over.
Butt conceded only six runs off the first five balls to tail-enders Akif Raja and Mohammed Faraazuddin which meant that the UAE needed six to win or four to tie as Raja faced up to the last ball.
But he could manage only a single and the Bahraini players erupted with joy as they celebrated only their second victory ever over the UAE (the first was also in a nerve-wracking thriller when Bahrain won by two runs in the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in Oman).
Earlier, after Bahrain captain Umer Toor won the toss and elected to bat, steady contributions from Imran Anwar (26 off 22 balls) and man-of-the-match Haider Butt (34 off 36 balls) gave the innings momentum before a late blitz by Junaid Aziz (31 not out off 27 balls) enabled his team to finish with a par score of 150 for five.
The UAE began their run-chase badly, losing opener Aryansh Sharma to Ali Dawood in the very first over and collapsed to 87 for four in the 12th over after a quick-fire 42-run, third-wicket partnership between skipper Muhammad Waseem and Asif Khan.
By the 15th over, the UAE had slumped further to 109 for six with 42 still required off 29 balls and when the excellent Imran Anwar prised out Nilansh Keswani with the score 135 for seven after 18.1 overs, the few spectators present in the ground sensed they were going to witness an exciting finale.
And so it turned out as Rizwan Butt capped what has been a wonderful tournament for him personally with a magical last over that would have made Waqar Younis proud.
This was the second successive narrow win for Bahrain after their one-run heist against Oman in the previous game and they were probably left to rue their disastrous start to the tournament when they lost their opening game to hosts Qatar by 19 runs and the second to Kuwait by eight wickets.
Still, Bahrain ended the tournament on a high, notching up three consecutive wins with their victory over the UAE proving that they truly belong at the international level.
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