On the weekend of 27th January, Kuwait Cricket held the grand finals upon the completion of all the league matches of the NBK Trophy 2017-18.
NBK Trophy sponsored by NBK, is the first tournament of the 2017-18 season for the Bank’s league.
The plate finals was played between KFH and NBK whereas CBK and Boubyan bank were competing for the Cup finals.
The grand finals along with the presentation ceremony were held at the picturesque Entertainment City ground in a grand style with live commentary and DJ along with snacks.
Dignitaries from all the banks witnessed exciting and entertaining matches in a fun filled environment. Mr. Kiyan, Mr. Mohammed Ziad and Mr. Richard Nazareth- Manager of NBK Cricket team from NBK; Mr Paul Dawood, GM- Operations and Mr.Talal Al Nassar- Councilor for cricket from CBK; Mr Abdulla Al Saif, Head of media and PR services graced the event with their presence.
Kuwait Cricket Council led by the Chairman Mr. Mahmood Bastaki along with Mr. Sajid Ashraf, Mr. Rishi D Jayan, Mr. Robert D'souza and Mr. Naveen Dhananjayan were present for the occasion.
The dignitaries from the 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 Boubyan, Cup runners-up CBK and Plate winners KFH. The presentation ceremony was conducted professionally by Umer Slahuddin- Senior KC marketing member along with support from KC marketing team members Sibtain Raza, Asad Ali Shah and Husnain.
Match Briefs :
Plate Finals:
In the plate finals of the day, KFH defeated NBK by 4 wickets in a nail biting finish to the match. NBK batting first scored 160 for the loss of 5 wickets. In reply KFH started the chase well by scoring 80 of the first 10 overs for the loss of 1 wicket, but with the fall of a few more wickets at regular intervals, the target looked a bit difficult with 13 required off the last 2 overs but with Saad Khalid at the crease, the target was achieved with ease as he ploughed two huge sixes finishing off the target 18.4 overs, with him being declared as the man of the match for his 37 runs and 2 wicket haul.
Cup Finals:
Boubyan Bank won the toss and without any hesitation decided to bat first on good flat track posting huge total of 214 runs with major contributions from Abid Mushtaq scoring 69 runs and Sarfaraz Kazi scoring 60 runs well supported by Imran Kaskar who scored a quick 39 runs of 24 balls. In reply Commercial Bank of Kuwait started well with the run chase by being aggressive from the very first over by scoring 15 runs, but with the fall of wickets especially of Diju and Nitin, thereafter could not help their cause and could finally just manage 114 runs at the end of their allotted 20 overs.
Abid Mushtaq was declared as the man of the match for his knock of 69 runs in 32 balls.
This year certain special awards were given by the Kuwait Cricket management which were the best bowler given to Sajid Kalam from Ahli United Bank, best batsman given to Amir Javid from Boubyan Bank and the best all -rounder given to Zahid Khan from Kuwait Finance House.
Congratulations to all the winners, runners up and individual performers of NBK trophy.