Indoor Cricket News: Team DBMSC UAE crowned Club World Series champions

The overall picture

The inaugural Indoor Cricket Club World Series concluded at the UPro Sports Center in Dubai, UAE last night, with hometown favorites DBMSC battling it out with Barbarians Indoor Cricket Club (BICC) from New Zealand/Australia in the Grand Final. were crowned inaugural champions.

DBMSC underlined their dominance by going undefeated throughout the tournament, a stretch spanning eight matches in all. They beat fellow unbeaten Emirates SFS 67-19 in the semi-finals by 15 points, while the Barbarians edged out a tough Jamia Indoor Cricket Club team from England 82-61 to set up a Cup semi-final showdown.

The tournament featured 12 teams from the United Arab Emirates, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and a combined New Zealand/Australian team. Over five days of competition, the teams played each other in two pools, which culminated in the Cup and Plate playoffs yesterday. Founded by UPro owner Manish Kishore, the idea behind the tournament was to bring together club teams from around the world to compete in a high-level tournament, similar to international cricket.

Cup Final – DBSMSC (UAE) vs Barbarians Indoor CC (AUS/NZL)

The final brought together arguably the two best teams of the tournament. Coming off of BICC’s previous 52 series loss to the same opponent on match day 2, BICC looked to make amends and hand their rivals their first tournament loss in the finals.

DBMSC racket first, set a competitive total

However, batting first, the Emirati team got off to the perfect start with Jay Joshi and Nadir Hussain getting 28 in the first skin, despite Daniel Van Hees and Clive Rose playing two off the third ball. Vikrant Shetty and Ruwan Chandra added another 23, again dismissing Matt Henderson and Jackson Hemingway’s two-third-ball partnership late on to take the score to a healthy 50 at mid-innings.

BICC then hit back in the third pair. After a tight first over from Mitchell Rush, Van Hees broke through in successive balls against Farhan Khan and Charlie Finnie added another run-out in the next over despite Krishna Karate’s seven. Hemingway tacked on one extra point to tie the game at 11 and the BICC opener in the game.

It left an intriguing last four overs, but DBMSC had their trump cards, Prashath Kumara, who already has five player of the match awards in the tournament, and Dilisara Sasanka. Kumar had gone into the match with 168 runs from his previous seven matches and he did not disappoint, striking Jared Tutty in the first four balls. Despite potential third-ball chances from Tutty and then Todd Watson, the pair took out Henderson in the third over, with back-to-back fours producing a run of 15. After Clive Rose finished, the pair had made 37 and a total of 99, leaving BICC with 100 to win.

BICC fights hard in the chase, DBMSC holds its nerve

With an average of 25 needed per pair with the added pressure of the final, a good start was essential.

Van Hees and Finnie were the established pair opening for BICC and they delivered again. Van Hees continued his impressive tournament into the final, scoring 136 runs in seven games. They navigated the first two overs well, winning two third-ball chances from Karate and Farhan. DBSMC were sloppy in the last two overs and 10 extras, including a six from Shetty in the last over (all extras have to be bowled again in the last over of each batting pair), provided the batsmen with easy runs. However, the last ball ran out to delay him and in the 28 runs they scored, both teams were tied after the first couple.

The tide of the match turned from the first ball of the fifth game when Tutty was run out of karate bowling. Farhan’s run-out double in the seventh over put Tutty and Hemingway in a very difficult spot. With the batting pair at seven runs with three balls to spare, Joshi took two strikes and caught the last ball, leaving the pair at -1 for a total of 27.

Watson and Rush rose to the challenge with 73 runs needed from the last eight overs. They scored tightly and scored a boundary apiece. This included 19 off the last two overs to take the partnership to 28.

45 was required in the last partnership which was hard to ask for the last pair of Rose and Henderson. Shetty had Rose run out off the third ball in the ninth over and despite a couple of big hits from Henderson, it left BICC with the required 29 off the final over. Joshi caught Rose twice in successive balls and despite some late strikes, the total was ultimately too much for the New Zealand/Australia team. DBMSC won at home by 24 runs and announced themselves as a force going forward in the club-based competition.

It raised the curtain on an eventful tournament, with the next edition scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in 2024. All eyes are now on the next major domestic cricket tournament, the New Zealand-Asia Cup to be played in Bangalore. May 2-5.

Summary scores

Cup Final:

DBMSC (UAE) 99 (28-23-11-37)

Sasanka 20, Joshi 19

Van Hees 1/4, Hemingway 1/6

Barbarians Indoor Cricket Club (AUS/NZL) 75 (28-1-28-20)

Rush 21, Henderson 21

Farhan 2/1, Joshi 4/2

Player of the match: Prasath Kumara, DBMSC (UAE)

Player of the Tournament: Prasath Kumara, DBMSC (UAE)

Result: DBMSC won by 24 runs to win the 2023 Indoor Cricket Club World Series

Scores, results and final rankings available, please: United Pro Sports