Sana XI Cricket Club retained the Lilongwe Worldwide Cricket League after beating Degham on Sunday at the Muslim Sports Club in Lilongwe.
Four top teams, Sana XI, Degham, Safa XI, and Chand XI reached the playoffs out of the league’s 12 teams.
The first semi-final between Safa XI and Degham failed after Safa pulled out because of their internal issues.
Degham qualified to face Sana, who overcame Chand in another semi-final.
Sana won the toss and batted first. They scored 162 runs. Their top scorers in the game were Sadiq Patel, and Mushahid Salim, who scored 32 runs each while Osman Shani had 31 runs.
Chand got all out on 113 runs and SanaXI won by 49 runs to reach the final.
Muhammad Khuram (24 runs) and Sall Ulddin (28 runs) were top scorers for Chand.
In the final, Sana won the toss and were the first to bat, scoring 125 runs with Osman Shani emerging top scorer with 47 runs while Suleman Sanni scored 24 runs and the rest of the scores were shared among the other players.
While chasing the total of 125 runs, Degham got all out on 57 runs as Sana’s Muhammad Ansar took four wickets and Hafiz Usman and Shafaqat Ali took two wickets each to restrict Degham to 57 runs.
Imran Kara and Irfan Darbar were the highest scorers for Degham with XI and 10 runs, respectively.
Sana won the finals by 68 runs to retain the title.
Sana Cricket Club captain Adil Chaudhry said they were happy to win their second consecutive league trophy.
“We played well throughout the season. It was a well-deserved victory for us. We are thankful to management for supporting us during the season,” he said.
Muslim Sports Club cricket organiser Sleem Rodhan said the league was successful.
“This was a good competition. Sana deserve to this trophy because they were outstanding,” he said.
Degham captain Mubarak Patel declined to comment. n
