Forty’s Cricket Club gets underway

The Forty’s Cricket Club got off to a resounding start recently with the Forty’s- White beating the Forty’s- Blue by eight wickets at the  Sharjah Stadium.Both the teams comprising of the Founder members who are well known business personalities from the UAE along with veteran cricketers who have been invited  to enroll as Playing members  and distinguished members of the local media got together to launch the Forty’s Clubs cricket calendar with a T20 game.CTK Nasir opening the attack for the Whites had one move away off the seam to have yester year National cricketer nick one outside the off stump to give the Whites an encouraging start.However Blues skipper, Shaji Shahtaj and Irfan Ansari buckled down to not only stave off any further hiccups but played with lots of authority and finesse, belying their age and the gap after which they were returning to some sort of regular cricket.The pair put on 78 runs for the second wicket and both of them then had to retire after compiling 31 runs each as per the rules in force for this game.Shaji and Irfan both struck some lovely square-cuts and pull shots reminiscing the good old days and hit five boundaries each.Sharjah Cricket Clubs former all-rounder and leg spinner, Ali Anwar bowled a mesmerizing spell, spinning the ball sharply to surprise Ashok Puri and Shiva Pagarani and having both of them stumped by Abbas Khan who did a good job behind the sticks.Indian Sports Clubs former big hitter of the ball, Brij Bhalla also got into the groove quite quickly to make an unbeaten 22 runs and partnered veteran cricket writer KRNayar in an unbeaten  31 runs partnership until the overs ran out.Nayar batted beautifully for his 16 runs in which he struck two boundaries square off the wicket. Pradeep  Adur, Wilfred Pereira and Ambrose fielded well for the Whites team.Forty’s White replied with some exciting and stroke filled cricket from their openers Jairaj Thakur who is a well known coach and CTK Nasir as both toyed with the bowling to put on 98 runs for the opening wicket.Jairaj was the severe of the two smacking two sixes and three fours, making batting look very easy and raced to his 30 runs in 16 balls and had to retire. Nasir made his 31 runs in 21 balls and smashed four boundaries in his essay. Tauseef Khan then played a cameo making 13 runs before he was caught and bowled by Shiva Pagarani.Veteran Mohamed Lokhandwala who was leading the Forty’s Whites and Dr Shafi Ul Mulk then ensured that they achieved the target in just 14.4 overs and both remained unbeaten with 11 runs each to win by eight wickets.At the Awards Presentation ceremony after the game, Shaji Shahtaj, IP Khaitan and Mohamed Lokhandwala thanked the media and all the players for taking out time to play the inaugural game.