University CC beat CMCC decisively by nine wickets in the final of the inaugural Chiang Mai T20 League after bowling out their opponents for 83 in just 13 overs.
By contrast the third place play-off was full of runs as Lanna scored 173 for 3 thanks to 75 from Richard Cowles and 50 from Jon Scales to beat Lamphun by 35 runs.
It proved a well-contested league with four teams all playing six matches before semi-finals followed by finals.
Eight pairs of matches gave all four teams plenty of cricket each weekend and Lanna could at least boast of having the leading run-scorer in their ranks as Luke Stokes hit 295 runs in five matches but Nick Janes was just as impressive with 188 in his three matches. Champ had a consistent season for Lamphun with 257 runs in six matches.
CMCC’s Burhan Bhatt was leading wicket-taker with 13 but he was closely followed by Elliot Lodge on 11 and Leng on 10.
CMCC had finished top of the league table as they and UCC both had four wins while Lanna and Lamphun won two matches apiece.
The semi-finals were both one-sided affairs as CMCC beat Lamphun by 129 runs and UCC chased down Lanna’s 131 for 7 in just 10.2 overs thanks to Ali reaching fifty from just 16 balls.
The final was expected to be a close contest but there was only going to be one winner once Zeeshan had blasted out Naveed for a first ball duck as the UCC fast bowlers proved too much for CMCC.
Zeeshan and Shujaat saw UCC home to a comprehensive nine-wicket victory in just 9.2 overs as they became deserved T20 champions.