Anchor Industries have successfully put an end to Fargo’s two year reign in the FMB Twenty-20 Cricket Tournament with a 164-116 run triumph during finals at Mpingwe Sports Club (MSC) in Blantyre on Sunday.
This is the second time that Anchor, whose birth name is MSC Silver, has won the title after doing it against the same opponents, who are also known as MSC White, in 2012.
Signs of Anchor’s authority were evident from the start when they raced to 55 runs in eight overs, in which Player-of-the-Tournament and Man-of-the-Match Soheil Goti contributed 37 runs. The side completed the innings with 164 runs, thanks to other contributors such as Aasif Rustam (31 runs) and Salim Popi (19 runs).
“It feels great to be the champions again after a three-year FMB title drought. Team work has paid us,” marvelled Anchor captain Saeed Limdawala after receiving their trophy from FMB’s international and corporate banking general manager Thomas Kadantot.
On the other hand, Fargo were not in their best form. Their bowlers were guilty of over-relying on short balls, which were not good enough to help them chase down Anchor’s scores.
“Our key players such as Aasim Jonty and Assan Chaudhry did not tick today. This was not our day,” said Fargo’s team captain Karamat Chaudhry.
Fargo found solace in having Zahid Rashid as the tournament’s best bowler. The best batsman accolade went to Easypack’s Khalil Badat.
MSC sports director Abdul Wahab Jagot and executive member Makbul Latif thanked FMB and 10 team sponsors for the support.
Kadantot, who was accompanied by FMB head of marketing Sylvia Nankwenya-Mataka during prize presentation, said they will continue sponsoring the annual contest. n
