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Panthers to battle Pakistanis in final match

Club Cricket Abuja Panthers have qualified for the final match of the Iris Smart Technologies Abuja Cricket League where they will battle with Abuja Pakistanis for the title. The group stage of the league ended last weekend after the last two games of series played at the cricket oval of the National Stadium, Package B…

ARCC Batsman, Gbenga Ariyo (centre) up against Ayo Ejegi of the CCAP (right) and Pankaj Thiara during their last group game at the Iris Smart Technologies Abuja Cricket League… last weekend.

Club Cricket Abuja Panthers have qualified for the final match of the Iris Smart Technologies Abuja Cricket League where they will battle with Abuja Pakistanis for the title.

The group stage of the league ended last weekend after the last two games of series played at the cricket oval of the National Stadium, Package B Abuja.

The permutations were very rife the week before, as to who amongst the trio of Abuja Indians Cricket Club (AICC), Cricket Club Abuja Panthers (CCAP) and Aso Rock Cricket Club (ARCC) would join the already qualified Abuja Pakistanis Cricket Club in the finals of the league.

The Abuja Pakistanis (APCC) were up against the Abuja Indians (AICC) in a game that was just a mere formality for the APCC but a must win for the AICC.

The AICC won the toss and chose to put the APCC in to bat. The APCC played 136 runs in 20 overs for the loss of eight wickets, Mohammad Hashim played 33 runs off 20 balls hitting a series total runs of 165 in six matches. In the second innings the AICC came to chase 136 runs and would win only if they played 137 runs in 20 overs.

That did not happen as the bowling and tight fielding of the APCC checkmated them. At the end of the game, the AICC were only able to score 113 runs in 20 overs for the loss of seven wickets. The Abuja Pakistanis Cricket Club won the game by 23 runs.

The major cracker of the day was the tension soaked match between the ARCC and the CCAP. Both teams needed to win the game to qualify for the final game and so the fireworks began from the delivery of the first ball at approximately 1:30 p.m.

In the match, which was the 12th game of the league, ARCC won the toss and elected to bat first with the dream of winning the CCAP and subsequently booking a spot in the finals.

The ARCC batted 130 runs in 20 overs for the loss of seven wickets. The opening combination of Jamal Okechukwu and Gbenga Ariyo saw Jamal out in 3.1 overs with the scoreboard at 20 runs. Ehis Uadiale came in and his combination with Gbenga Ariyo pushed the runs to 77 at 8.1 overs when Ehis lost his wicket.

Musa Bodie was not at his best compared to his previous performances, as he was only able to put in two runs off seven balls.

Gbenga Ariyo pushed his team to 94 runs till he lost his wicket in the 16th over, scoring a personal 36 runs off 41 balls. At the end of 20 overs the ARCC scored 130 runs for the loss of 7 wickets.

The second innings saw the CCAP coming in to chase 130 and needed 131 runs to win. The two opening batsmen, Mr. Regi George and Aadil Bhatel knew exactly what was needed to win and they went straight to work.

While keeping their wickets they started to score slowly and gradually building up the tempo of the game by opening up to the boundaries. Their excellent combination took a lot of pressure off the middle order batsmen. Aadil scored 37 runs of 46 balls and Regi Gorge scored 36 runs off 32 balls.

Also Pankaj Thiara scored 17 runs of 14 balls and Ayo Ejegi scored 6 runs of 10 balls. The surprise discovery of the match was Nafees Khan who had been the 12th man.

At a critical moment when runs were needed he lived up to the billing and took the CCA Panthers to victory in his partnership with Michael Egiethua. He scored 18 runs off 10 balls and that was enough to win the game for his team. At 19 overs the CCAP scored 132 runs for the loss of five wickets, thus winning the game by five wickets.

In the final match on April 28, CCAP will meet the unbeaten APCC at the same venue.

The organisers have announced exciting prizes, including N200, 000 for the winner, N100, 000 for the second placed team, as well as N50, 000 for the best player of the league, N25, 000 each for the best batsman, best bowler and best fielder.

The Man of the final match will get N20,000, while the best batsman and best bowler will each get N10,000 with the best emerging player to get N5,000 from Iris Smart Technologies. The outstanding players will also get 50 kg bag of rice each from Olam Rice. 

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