Bahrain had a great start to the tournament winning the Desert Cup T20I in Oman despite their initial loss to Canada in the first match by four wickets, Bahrain came back strongly into the tournament and won their next two games convincingly.
Our talented batsman & wicketkeeper Umer Toor got injured in the match against Canada. He suffered a fracture in his leg and was operated upon in Oman.
In their second match, Bahrain came into form and defeated Oman in their first game against each other by 6 wickets. The victory came off the back of an excellent effort from Sohail Ahmed scoring 55*(39), which won him the Man of the Match but notable efforts from Haider Butt 28 (28) and David Mathias 19 (16) were instrumental in the win as was the contribution of bowlers Imran Khan 4/16 (4), David 2/17(3) and Shahid Mahmood 1/25 (4).
In their third match, Bahrain outplayed Saudi, winning by 53 runs
with Sohail Ahmed winning the Man of the Match for the second time in a row. His match-winning knock of 78*(57), was supported ably by
In their fourth match, Bahrain played Canada again and what a cracker of a match it turned out to be. Bahrain’s bowlers were outstanding! Muhammad Rizwan Butt took 3/25 (4) while Satya took 2/28 (3) while Imran Anwer took 1/27(4). The man of the match was Sarfaraz Thulla who scored 56(26) & 0/23(3) while David M scored 59*(57) and Sohail Ahmed scored 31*(16)
In their next match, Bahrain Vs Oman Match, things did not go Bahrain’s way and despite a good early start, we faltered in the middle and were all out for 114 in 16 overs. Oman won by 106 runs
In their next match with Saudi Arabia, it was just not Bahrain’s day – either with the bat or with the ball. Choosing to bat first, Bahrain’s score was 112/9 at the end of 20 overs with Haider Ali’s 41 in 43 balls being the only notable performance. In response, Saudi Arabia scored 115/1 in 10.5 overs.
Finally playing for third place against Saudi Arabia, Bahrain lost by 32 runs. KSA scored 155/8 in 20 overs while Bahrain scored 123/5. the only notable performances were from batsman Ahmed Nasir 55*(39) and bowler Imran Anwer 4/24 (4 overs).
