T20 Leagues are quite popular in modern day cricket. And we are back with another thrilling T20 League, ‘Gulf Cricket T20I Championship 2024’. And as the name suggests it’s a league of cricket playing nations in the Gulf region. This was the 2nd edition of the tournament hosted by the United Arab Emirates. The Event was holded from 13-21 December by International League T20. The post is going to be about the journey of UAE through the tournament and getting their first title by winning a thrilling final.
Teams In Gulf Cricket T20I Championship 2024
As we have mentioned already the cricket playing nations of the Gulf region participated in the League. Including- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Here we have also mentioned their squads for the tournament.
| United Arab Emirates | Qatar | Saudi Arabia |
| Muhammad Waseem(c) | Mohammed Rizwan (c, wk) | Waji Ul Hassan(c) |
| Rahul Chopra | Mohammad Ahnaff | Abdul Manan Ali (wk) |
| Syed Haider(wk) | Saqlain Arshad | Abdul Waheed |
| Muhammad Jawadullah | Muhammad Asim | Ishtiaq Ahmad |
| Simranjeet Kang | Mirza Mohammed Baig | Nawazish Akhtar(wk) |
| Nilansh Keswani | Amir Farooq | Choudhry Md Imran |
| Asif Khan | Mohammad Jabir | Usman Khalid |
| Ali Naseer | Ikramullah Khan | Faisal Khan |
| Dhruv Parashar | Imal Liyanage(wk) | Zuhair Muhammad |
| Omid Shafi Rahman | Mujeeb-ur-Rehman | Usman Najeeb |
| Alishan Sharafu | Mohammed Nadeem | Ahmad Raza |
| Junaid Siddique | Arunmugaganesh Nagarajan | Zuber Sunasara |
| Tanish Suri(wk) | Himanshu Rathod | Sidharth Sankar(wk) |
| Zuhaib Zubair | Muhammad Tanveer | Zain Ul Abidin |
| Bahrain | Kuwait | Oman |
| Haider Ali(c) | Mohammed Aslam(c) | Jatinder Singh(c) |
| Abdul Majid Abbas | Clinto Anto | Wasim Ali |
| Asif Ali | Miza Ahmed | Shakeel Ahmed |
| Fiaz Ahmed | Mohammed Amin | Mehran Khan |
| Sarfraz Ali | Meet Bhavsar | Aamir Kaleem |
| Imran Anwar | Muhammad Aqif Farooq | Hammad Mirza(wk) |
| Junaid Aziz | Adnan Idrees | Sufyan Mehmood |
| Muhammed Basil | Sayed Monib | Mohammad Nadeem |
| Ahmer Bin Nasir | Usman Patel(wk) | Ashish Odedra |
| Rizwan Butt | Yasin Patel | Jay Odedra |
| Imran Khan | Ravija Sandaruwan | Muzahir Raza |
| Prasant Kurup(wk) | Mohammed Shafeeq | Samay Shrivastava |
| Muhammad Salaman | Bilal Tahir | Vinayak Shukla(wk) |
| Sai Sarthak | Mohammad Umar | Karan Sonavale |
Match Results Of UAE In Group Stage
The Gulf Cricket T20I Championship was set to be played as Round-robin tournament. And according to the rule, the top 2 teams qualified for the final. UAE won 4 out of their 5 matches and took the place on the top of the table. We have mentioned the results of the match they played in the group stage.
Match (1 of 16) 13, Dec 2024 (Gulf T20I Championship)
In the first match of the tournament, UAE faced Bahrain. Bahrain decided to bat first after winning the toss. But, their decision to bat first pushed them at the backfoot after the first innings of the game. UAE easily chased down the target till the end of the 17th over. The skipper Muhammad Waseem and Asif Sharafu scored half-century and brought the first victory to the team.
| Bahrain- 113/8 (20) | |
| Ahmer Bin Nasir 58 (42) | Ali Naseer 2/9 (4) |
| Haider Butt 19 (19) | Dhruv Parashar 2/21 (4) |
| UAE- 117/2 (16.5) | |
| Muhammad Waseem 50* (37) | Imran Anwar 1/17 (3) |
| Asif Khan 50* (38) | Imran Khan 1/18 (2) |
| UAE won by 8 wicket and 19 balls left | |
Match (5 of 16) 15, Dec 2024 (Gulf T20I Championship)
In their Second match UAE played against Oman. And again they were unlucky with the coin. Oman invited UAE to bat first after winning the toss. ‘Muhammad Waseem’ as the captain led the team from the front and played a sensational innings to set a good target. UAE also showed their consistency in bowling with the coordinated attack totally restricting the flow of runs for Oman. Oman lost the match after playing 20 overs and losing 8 wickets.
| UAE- 157/7 (20) | |
| Muhammad Waseem 48 (31) | Samay Shrivastava 3/29 (4) |
| Tanish Suri 40 (38) | Sufyan Mehmood 2/35 (4) |
| Oman- 133/8 (20) | |
| Jatinder Singh 26 (24) | Ali Naseer 2/23 (4) |
| Aamir Kaleem 23 (23) | Junaid Siddique 2/24 (4) |
| UAE won by 24 runs | |
Match (8 of 16) 16, Dec 2024 (Gulf T20I Championship)
The Third face-off of the UAE in the tournament against Kuwait. UAE elected to bat first after winning the toss. UAE batters continued their form, ‘Tanish Suri’ came as a new star batsman for UAE. Along with him Muhammad Waseem scored his 2nd half-century in 3 matches of the tournament. Whereas other teams Kuwait showed good resistance, ‘Muhammad Umar Abdullah’ hitted 59 runs and kept his team in the chase. But, despite his effort UAE won the match by 11 runs.
| UAE- 168/8 (20) | |
| Tanish Suri 77 (47) | Sayed Monib 3/33 (4) |
| Muhammad Waseem 51 (28) | Yasin Patel 2/17 (4) |
| Kuwait- 157/8 (20) | |
| Muhammad Umar Abdullah 59 (44) | Muhammad Jawad Ullah 3/23 (4) |
| Usman Patel 40 (29) | Junaid Sidique 3/24 (4) |
| UAE won by 11 runs | |
Match (12 of 16) 18, Dec 2024 (Gulf T20I Championship)
UAE played their 4th match of the tournament against Qatar. After winning the toss, UAE elected to bat first as in the previous match. Muhammad Waseem continued to impress by hitting the 3rd half-century of the tournament. While chasing the target, Qatar totally got scrambled while batting and lost the match by 23 runs. ‘Simranjeet Singh Kang’ was the top wicket taker for UAE with 4 wickets.
| UAE- 162/6 (20) | |
| Muhammad Waseem 65 (36) | Himanshu Rathod 3/27 (4) |
| Asif Khan 41 (39) | Amir Farooq 2/27 (4) |
| Qatar- 139/7 (20) | |
| Muhammad Tanveer 47 (36) | Simranjeet Singh Kang 4/15 (4) |
| Himanshu Rathod 25* (22) | Junaid Siddique 2/29 (4) |
| UAE won by 23 runs | |
Match (13 of 16) 19, Dec 2024 (Gulf T20I Championship)
In the match no. 13 UAE played against Saudi Arabia. UAE won the toss for the 3rd time consecutively, And invited Saudi Arabia to bat first. Saudi Arabia played an exceptional innings and made a high total of 182 runs. Usman Khalid was the top scorer for Saudi Arabia by scoring 57 runs. UAE’s batters except Asif Khan lacked to perform and as result UAE lost the match by 11 runs.
| Saudi Arabia- 182/8 (20) | |
| Usman Khalid 57 (40) | Ali Naseer 3/29 (4) |
| Faisal Khan 26 (15) | Simranjeet Singh Kang 2/20 (3) |
| UAE- 171/5 (20) | |
| Asif Khan 79 (53) | Usman Najeeb 4/25 (4) |
| Rahul Chopra 61 (44) | Usman Khalid 1/32 (4) |
| Saudi Arabia won by 11 runs | |
Gulf Cricket T20I Championship 2024 Final: UAE Vs Kuwait
Till the end of the group stage matches Kuwait was on top with the 4 wins out of 5 matches. While Kuwait secured the second place with 3 wins. This section is going to summarize the thrilling final.
Final 21 Dec, 2024 (Gulf T20I Championship)
UAE
| UAE- 153/9 (20) | |
| Tanish Suri 34 (32) | Yasin Patel 3/30 (4) |
| Rahul Chopra 28 (17) | Sayed Monib 3/31 (3) |
| Alishan Sharafu 28 (17) | Meet Bhavsar 2/16 (4) |
| Asif Khan 23 (23) | Mohamed Shafeeq 1/15 (3) |
Kuwait
| Kuwait- 151/10 (19.3) | |
| Meet Bhavsar 72 (54) | Simranjeet Singh Kang 2/17 (4) |
| Muhammad Umar Abdullah 19 (20) | Ali Naseer 2/24 (4) |
| Bilal Tahir 16 (10) | Muhammad Jawad Ullah 2/28 (3.3) |
| Yasin Patel 15* (8) | Dhruv Parashar 1/26 (4) |
UAE won by 2 runs
Match Summary
Muhammad Waseem won the toss and elected to bat first.
| Time | 8:00 Pm |
| Venue | Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai |
| Umpires | Gopakumar Pillai |
| Rahat Ali | |
| Third Umpire | Mohammad Nasim |
| Match Referee | Iftikhar Ali |
UAE
UAE openers were struggling to score the runs which led to the first dismissal as Muhammad Waseem. After the first wicket down, Sharafu tried to balance the innings but also got out in the 7th over. And till the end of the 13th over another in-form batsman of UAE, Asif Khan lost his wicket. Most of the UAE’s batters failed to convert their starts into big innings. As a result till the end of the 20 overs UAE only crossed the 150 runs mark.
Kuwait
Kuwait openers seemed to be aggressive from the start. But on the 4th ball of the 1st over Junaid Siddique got Clinto who seemed to be dangerous. In the next over another opener also departed, But Meet Bhavsar who came to no. 3 totally turned the game for kuwait. He single handedly pulled the match in the favor of Kuwait. But in the last Muhammad Jawad Ullah got his wicket. On the very next bowl he bowled out the last batter and won the match for UAE by runs.
Top Performers From Gulf Cricket T20I Championship 2024
Here we have mentioned the top performers from the Gulf Cricket T20I Championship 2024.
Top 5 Scorers Of The Tournament
| Player | M | Inn | Runs | Avg | 4s | 6s | SR |
| Meet Bhavsar | 6 | 6 | 222 | 37.00 | 21 | 4 | 114.43 |
| Muhammad Waseem | 6 | 6 | 221 | 44.20 | 11 | 13 | 148.32 |
| Asif Khan | 6 | 6 | 196 | 39.20 | 8 | 11 | 121.74 |
| Usman Khalid | 5 | 5 | 185 | 46.25 | 17 | 7 | 124.16 |
| Faisal Khan | 5 | 5 | 166 | 33.20 | 12 | 13 | 182.42 |
Top 5 Wicket Takers Of The Tournament
| Players | M | Overs | Balls | Wkts | Avg | Runs | 4W |
| Junaid Siddique | 6 | 23.0 | 138 | 12 | 16.17 | 194 | 0 |
| Sayed Monib | 6 | 19.0 | 114 | 11 | 13.91 | 153 | 0 |
| Ali Naseer | 6 | 22.0 | 132 | 10 | 14.10 | 141 | 0 |
| Usman Najeeb | 5 | 18.4 | 112 | 10 | 14.20 | 142 | 1 |
| Simranjeet Singh Kang | 6 | 19.0 | 114 | 9 | 12.67 | 114 | 1 |
Player Of The Series
‘Meet Bhavsar’ was the player of the series for his great performance in Gulf Cricket T20I Championship 2024.