THE visiting Marlyborne Cricket Club (MCC) and Awali All Stars XI were involved in an exciting tie in a 40-overs match at Awali Cricket Club.
Opting to bat first, the MCC reached a challenging 279 for eight in their 40 overs. Alex Martin (40) and Michael Payne (64) gave them a good start adding 94 run for the opening wicket.
Martin Reingold (30) and Derbyshire professional Shiv Thakor (53) were the other notable contributors.
For Awali, Prachur Shukla (2-27), Mohammed Estiyaq (1-44), Sanjay Rathod (3-40), Ashwani Sharma (1-46) and Noman (1-67) shared the wickets while Sachin Potnis took three brilliant catches.
Awali began the chase well with Sharma (21) and Charles Forward (27) adding 69 runs for the opening wicket.
Later some excellent down-the-order batting by Felix Chettiar (78 not out), Sachin Potnis (28) and James McCullum (33) took Awali from 88 for seven to 274 for nine in 39th over.
Sachin and Felix added 83 runs while Felix and James compiled 84 runs for the last wicket. With six runs required of the last over with the last wicket in the middle, Thakor bowled perfect yorkers to prevent the Awali batmen from taking any runs. But Felix dug out a fourth ball yorker and struck it over midwicket for a boundary to tie the scores.
James was run out the next ball to bring the match to a thrilling end.
British Ambassador Simon Martin CMG was among the fans attending the match.
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