UAE women retain Gulf T20 cricket title

The UAE women’s cricket team successfully defended the GCC Women’s Twenty20 Championship held in Doha, Qatar.

UAE, who won the inaugural edition last year, were at their best again defeating Qatar by five wickets in the final.

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, Qatar were shot out for a meagre 47 after Heena Hotchandani and Ayesha Naushad Khan bowled exceptional spells.

While Heena picked up four wickets in her four overs giving away a measly five runs, Ayesha accounted for three scalps in her three overs giving away just four runs.

Humaira Tasneem and Subha Venkatraman claimed a wicket each.

UAE were on track during the chase as they achieved the target in just 9.3 overs losing five wickets.

Chaya Mughal top scored with a fluent 26 from 21 deliveries. Heena was declared player of the match for her brilliant bowling.

The victory meant UAE remained unbeaten in the tournament registering five consecutive victories, including wins against Qatar and Oman in the earlier rounds.

The other notable performance from UAE was from Esha Oza who scored 93 runs in the tournament and Humaira Tasneem who took six wickets.

UAE women’s team coach Mohammad Hyder said: “It was an amazing victory for the girls and defending it was even more special. This is the result of extensive training sessions and the practice games that the team underwent in the run up to the tournament.”

“As part of our Women's development plan, Emirates Cricket Board intends to hold the next Gulf Cup in UAE next year, where we intend to invite teams from Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore along with Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The intention is to develop our quality of cricket while playing better ranked teams,” said Mazhar Khan Administrator of ECB.