On the weekend of 25th January 2020, Kuwait Cricket Club held the grand finals upon the completion of all the league matches of the KBC T20 Trophy 2019-20. The KBC Trophy, sponsored by the Kuwait Banks Club is the first tournament of the 2019-20 season for the Bank’s league.
The plate finals were played between KFH and Boubyan, whereas CBK and AUB were competing for the Cup finals.
The grand finals, along with the presentation ceremony were held at the Sulaibiya cricket ground in a grand style with supporters from all the participating teams making the environment very entertaining.
Dignitaries from KBC and all the banks witnessed exciting and entertaining matches in a fun filled environment. Mr. Talal Al Nassar, the Head of KBC’s sports committee and Mr. Abu Ali from KBC graced the occasion with their presence and Mr. Masoud Al Hassan – CFO, Mr Paul Dawood, GM - Operations and Mr. Manjit Singh were among the guests from CBK. Mr. Alok Mishra, the Senior GM from AUB was also part of the guests panel.
Kuwait Cricket Club dignitaries led by Mr. Sajid Ashraf (Director General), Mr. Rishi D Jayan (Director of Seniors Cricket & operations), Mr. Naveen Dhananjayan (Director for match officials), Mr. Munaf Tisekar (Director Corporate), Mr. Robert (Director of Facilities and Logistics) and Mr, Qais Parkar (Manager of Logistics) were all present for the occasion.
The dignitaries from KBC, Banks and KC council members handed over the trophies for the winners, runners-up and top individual performers of the tournament. Gifts were presented to all team members of the Cup winners CBK, Cup runners-up AUB and Plate winners KFH.
Match Briefs :
Plate Finals
In the plate finals of the day, KFH defeated Boubyan by 3 wickets in a nail biting finish to the match. Boubyan who batted first scored 133 for the loss of 5 wickets. Skipper Faraaz scoring 40 not out was well supported by Shahzam with 34 runs. In reply, KFH chased the target in 19.1 overs. Saad Khalid the man of the plate finals scored a quick 38 runs off 21 balls to guide KFH to victory.
Cup Finals.
CBK won the toss and elected to field. AUB posted a good total of 166 courtesy of Adnan Idrees (39 runs in 24 balls), Saud Qamar (30 runs) and Dinesh (32 runs). In reply CBK started briskly with Diju scoring 82 runs in 50 balls, well supported by Nassir hussains who hit 41 runs off 28 balls. However, AUB clawed back in the game with fine spells from Robin Matthew and Aby George. Requiring 8 runs off the last over, CBK batsman Saheer Abbas hit a maximum off the first ball of the 20th over to clinch a thrilling victory for CBK. Diju xavier was declared as the man of the cup finals.
Individual Award Winners:
Best Batsman: Diju Xavier
Best Bowler: Shadab Abdulla