Canada Crowned Desert Cup Champions!

Piloted by Aaron Johnson’s Player Of the Tournament
outstanding batting which was well supported by crucial
innings played at the most opportune times by some of
his teammates and coupled with bowling that was at times
just too good for their opponent’s bewildered batsmen, Canada’s
Men’s Senior Cricket team was duly crowned as the 2022 Desert Cup
T20 Champions. Having completed the tournament’s Preliminary
Round Robin stage with a 5-1 record, the Canadians comfortably
defeated their second-placed hosts Oman by 8 wickets in the
November 21 Final to emerge as most deserving Tournament
Champions.

Prior to the Final against their Oman hosts, the Canadians had
won almost all of their Preliminary Round matches with relatively
comfortable victories over Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the
tournament’s other two participating countries. A second-round
loss to Bahrain was the only defeat suffered by the Canadians
throughout the entire tournament.

Johnson had scores of 51, 84, 109, 0, 1, 89 and 68 in his 7 innings
batted to easily top the tournament standings as the highest runscorer.
He was very ably supported by his wicket-keeper more often-
than-not opening batting partner Srimantha Wijeyeratne
who scored two half-centuries, both made in separate matches,
against Oman, among his seven tournament innings.

Pargat Singh was the only other Canadian batsman to register a half-century
during the tournament. His 51ball 61 was made against Bahrain in the opening
round encounter between the two teams.

The tone for overall aggressive intent that was demonstrated by Canada’s
batsmen during the tournament had been set by none other than their captain
Saad Bin Zafar in the very first match they played. Chasing Bahrain’s challenging
first strike total of 195.6 and with his team still needing another 35 at the start
of the 18th over, Zafar struck two sixes and four boundaries off the six balls
he then faced to reduce the required final over target to just seven. Harsh

Thaker then gleefully followed his captain’s example by striking a six and a four
off the first two balls of the 20th to take the Canadians comfortably past the
required total to the agonized disbelief of the Bahrain fielders.

If Johnson was undisputedly the best of the Canadian batsmen, Ammar
Khalid was equally so among the bowlers. Khalid bowled with impressive
accuracy at the start and end of Canada’s opponents’ innings to emerge as the
tournament’s leading wicket-taker. Khalid had tournament figures of 167/13-
26 overs for an economy rate of 6.42.

Khalid was very well supported by his fellow seamers, Kaleem Sana Ur Rehman
164/7-22 and Dilon Heyliger 176/7-22. Kaleem’s economy rate for his 22
overs bowled was 7.45 while Heyliger’s was at 8. Among the Canadian spinners,
skipper Saad Bin Zafar was the most successful with overall tournament figures
of 5/162-19.Zafar’s economy rate for his 19 overs bowled was 8.52.

CANADIAN MATCHES SUMMARIZED SCORES:
11/14/2022
Vs Bahrain
Bahrain 195/6-20. Sohail Ahmed 80, Imran Khan 51. Ammar Khalid 3/38-4, Kaleem Sana Ur Rehman 2/36-4.
Canada 197/6-19.2. Aaron Johnson 51, Saad Bin Zafar 29*, Spoors 26, Pargat Singh 26, Ravi Singh 24, Harsh Thaker 18*
Canada won by 4 wickets in 19.2 overs.
11/15/2022
Vs Saudi Arabia
Canada 194/5, Aaron Johnson 80 (52), Srimantha Wijeratne 34 (21), Pargat Singh 27 (26), Muhammad Sagib 2/37-3.
Saudi Arabia 128/8-20. Haseeb Gafoor 36 (33), Mohammed Hish 29 (31). Ravi Singh 2/10-2. Kaleem Sana 2/11-2, Dilon
Heyliger 2/22-4.
Canada won by 66 runs.11/16/2022
Vs Oman
Canada 191/2-20 Ov. Aaron Johnson 109*
Srimantha Wijeyeratne 50.
Oman 190/6 – 20 Ov. Mohammed Nadeem 77,
Kashyap Kumar 29. Ammar Khalid 2/22-4. Pargat
Singh 2/25-3.
Canada won by 1 run.
11/17/2022:
Vs Bahrain
Canada 160/6 – 20 Ov.Pargat Singh 61. Ravinderpal
Singh 47. Muhammad Rizwan Butt 3/25-4.
Bahrain 164/2- 19.1 Ov. David Mathias 59, Sarfaraz
Thulla 56.
Bahrain won by 8 wickets.
11/19/2022:
Vs Saudi Arabia
Canada 171/6-20. Matthew Spoors 44, Harsh
Thaker 37. Usman Najeed 3/22-4.
Saudi Arabia 126/8 – 20. Saad Khan 29. Anmar
Khalid 4/17-3.
Canada won by 45 runs.
11/20/22:
Vs Oman
Oman 169/7-20. Zeeshan Maqsood 54, Jatinder
Singh 47. Anmar Khalid 3/22-4, Saad Bin Zafar
2/19-3.
Canada 170/7-19.5 overs. Aaron Johnson 89,
Harsh Thaker 24, Dilon Heyliger 22. Kaleemullah
3/23-3.3, Rafiullah M 3/47-4.
Canada won by 3 wickets with one
ball to spare.
11/21/22:
Vs Oman Desert Cup Final
Oman 137/10-20. Naseem Khushi 47. Jeremy
Gordon 3/36-4, Dilon Heyliger 2/29-4.
Canada 139/2-14. Aaron Johnson 68, Srimantha
Wijeyeratne 51*.
Canada won by 8 wickets!

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