Assarain crowned T20 champion

Muscat: Premier Division giant Assarain captured the Khimji Ramdas-sponsored T20 League crown by beating Passage to India in the tournament’s last game by 39 runs at Oman Cricket’s grassy ground 2 on Friday.
Assarain ended up securing 10 points from 8 matches and was tied up at the top with Al Turki NMC having the same points from as many games but was declared the winner due to better net run rate. Passage to India was third with 8 points.
Assarain captain Naseem Khushi and manager Vinu Mathew received the trophy from Shankar Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Khimji Ramdas, who was the chief guest, in the presence of Oman Cricket officials, guests, team officials and players.
Invited to bat first, Assarain posted 139 for 9 on the board with major contributions from Naseem Khushi (36 off 17), Gustav Burger (24 off 22) and Sami Ur Rahman (23 off 17).
PTI struggled to chase even a modest total, losing wickets at regular intervals before being shot down for 100 in the 19 th over. Asif Khan (32 off 37) and Sultan Ahmed (24 off 29) were the only batsmen who offered some resistance to Assarain’s menacing attack despite the absence of its two stars Zeeshan Maqsood
and Muhammed Nadeem, who were in Namibia on national duty. Gustav Burger caused the early damage by claiming two wickets for 10 runs.