Dubai schools lockout girls cricket semi-finals

SHARJAH // The Sharjah inter-school girls trophy is guaranteed to return to Dubai after four schools from the emirate made it through to this morning's semi-finals.

Our Own English School and Delhi Private School will meet in the first semi-final at Sharjah Cricket Stadium at 8am, and Gulf Indian High School and Dubai Modern High School will play at 10.15am. The winners will meet in the final at 1.30pm.

Gulf Indian High made it through to the last four after posting back-to-back victories on Monday. They first defeated Our Own English High School from Sharjah by seven wickets and then accounted for The Winchester School, Jebel Ali, by eight wickets.

Delhi Private School got the better of the Indian School, from Ras al Khaimah, on their way to the semi-finals, winning by nine wickets, thanks to an innings of 14 by Shambhavi Gupta.

Pritam Kumari played a key role in Gulf Indian High School's win over Our Own English High School, Sharjah. She took two wickets for 12 runs and followed it up with an unbeaten innings of seven runs. She also excelled in the match against The Winchester School with an all-round performance which yielded one wicket and nine runs.

Also in Sharjah, Nigel Fernandez produced a brilliant all-round performance to guide Fly Emirates to a three-wicket victory over Air Cargo Traders Desert Cubs in the 37th Bukhatir League A Division Tournament.

The experienced all-rounder first claimed two wickets for 36 runs and then hammered an unbeaten 65 off 100 balls with three fours to help his side see off a determined challenge from the Desert Cubs with 21 balls to spare.

The Desert Cubs had posted a competitive 236 but Fly Emirates eclipsed this total for the loss of seven wickets.