KUWAIT CITY, May 9: Kuwait national cricket team added another feather to their cap by winning the coveted ICC WCL Division 7 tournament played in Botswana. Kuwait’s fine exhibition of all round cricketing skills enabled them to carve an emphatic win over Nigeria by a margin of 72 runs.

Opener Irfan Bhatti’s continuation of fine individual form in the tournament and a magnificent spell of fast bowling by Mohammed Murad was the key to Kuwait’s success. Anyway, remarkable late order batting contributions by Mohammed Ahsan, Mohammed Akunzada,  Midhun Pakalapati  & Azmatullah enabled Kuwait to post 219 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 50 overs. Kuwait’s remarkable victory over the African nation was a repeat of their earlier victory in the league match but nevertheless both teams did qualify to Division 6 which will be played in Malaysia in September 2011.
 

ICC and Bermuda cricket director Neil Speight presents WCL trophy to  Kuwait’s captain Hisham Mirza.

In overnight rain had made the condition quite gloomy and Nigeria after winning the toss rightly elected to field first. Kuwait’s in form Irfan Bhatti cracked a solid 60 runs and posted 66 runs partnership with Jagath Roshantha that paved way for a good start.
 The Nigerian opening bowlers Ratin Gill & Akolade bowled exceptionally well with teasing accuracy and control which forced the Kuwait batsmen into a defensive mould.  Sean Philips the leg spinner was introduced and he intelligently varied his flight, line and pace thus restricting the free scoring Kuwait batsmen.  But it was medium pacer OJ Bejide who did the damage by claiming the top three Kuwait batsmen as he bowled so efficiently that it looked very likely that he would ultimately be able to claim his first ever five wicket haul in an ODI. In the space of two overs, Bejedi removed Sibtain Raza; skipper Hisham & Saud Qamar which sent Kuwait reeling to a moderate 113 for 5 wickets in 33 overs.

Kuwait’s Mohammad Murad, man of the match and player of the series.
 

In an innings in which he had executed very few false shots, Irfan Bhatti was finally caught behind of Ogunlola after the master batsman had scored 60 invaluable runs with 9 boundaries & a neatly flicked six to the fine leg. Sibtain Raza, the lithe left hander played well to score 18 runs but fell to another short pitch delivery so did Kuwait skipper Hisham. But it was the experienced duo of Azmatullah (19 runs) & Mohammaed Ahsan (26 runs) who rebuild the innings with some handsome looking strokes. After their exit, Midhun & Abdulla Akunzada combined brilliantly to take Kuwait’s score past 200. Abdulla scored a breezy 21 runs while Midhun remained not out with 16 to his credit. OJ Bejide was the most successful Nigerian bowler with 4-20 while SO Akolade & JO Ogunlola took 2 wickets each. Nigerian wicket keeper has a great day behind the stumps as he claimed 5 catches which has been the highest in the tournament so far.

Chasing 220 to win the championship, Nigeria lost opener Onikoyi who was comprehensively beaten & bowled by Mohammed Murad. Murad & fellow fast bowler Saad Khalid bowled like a well oiled machine and the fierce some duo bowled with great fire under favorable condition. Introduction of spinners from both the end applied brakes on the Nigerian scoring as Azmattulah & Abdulla Akunzada found their rhythm very quickly. But the experienced duo of Ratin Gill and Nigeria’s most prolific scorer Sean Philips gave some hopes for the African team as they mixed aggression with caution and slowly repaired the damage. As the partnership was flourishing, Midhun Pakalapati cut one through Gill’s defensive blade to knock the leg stump thus ending any hopes Nigeria had. Gill cut & drove with ease and his handsome knock of 45 runs contained 5 hits to the fence.  Sean Philips played a memorable innings of 35 runs but his polished knock was not enough as Kuwait’s bowlers wrapped the tail to end Nigeria’s innings to 147 runs in the 44th over.  Murad captured 4 wickets for 20 runs while Saad Khalid (2-31) & Azmat (2-16) took 2 wickets each. Abdulla Akunzada & Midhun accounted for a wicket each. Mohammed Murad was declared man of the match for his fine spell of fast bowling and also had the distinction of bagging the Player of the tournament for his wonderful performance as fast bowler.

“I don’t think we came into this tournament in Botswana as favorites. We played each game as it came and it worked out well for us as we came out victorious again,” said Kuwait’s captain Hisham-Mirza.
Kuwait fought off cold, wind, rain, alien Astroturf wickets, their own demons and some feisty opposition to triumph. Germany beat Kuwait by 11 runs in the round-robin stage and had it not been for some enterprising lower-order batting, in advancing Kuwait from 129 for 6 at the start of the 39th over to 219, the Final could have been much closer.

“I don’t think I can single out one player that performed for me as we are very much a team effort. However, I will mention my fast bowlers, they’ve been the best in Division 7 and Division 8 in my opinion. They are quick, they are good but we’re in this as a team,” says Kuwait’s ebullient captain. Left-arm pace bowler Mohammad Murad with 15 wickets at 10.26 over five matches was Player of the Tournament, ably supported by Saad Khalid with 11 at 11.63. Hisham Mirza, Sibtain Raza and Irfan Bhatti (60 in the Final) made important runs too and Kuwait, after years of being the nearly men, may just be setting themselves up for some sustained tournament-winning performances.

Pepsi ICC World Cricket League looms next in Malaysia in the third week of September, where tough opposition lies in wait in the home side, Fiji, Guernsey, Jersey along with Nigeria. To be played on the lushest of turf, something Kuwait’s batsmen haven’t taken that well to in the past. “I don’t think Malaysia will be that easy - we’ve made a few mistakes during this tournament and the higher the division the harder it gets for us as a team. We need to make sure we’re well prepared for the event and plug the loopholes in the team and hopefully we’ll go there and even better side than we were here in Botswana,” says Hisham.