The Danube Lions and DBMSC Steel will go head-to-head in the Grand Final of this year’s Ramadan Indoor Cricket Tournament in a repeat of last year’s ultimate match – but only after a dramatic conclusion to the semi-finals at the ICC Academy at Dubai Sports City.

Champion team Danube cruised past Oxford Marine by 75 runs in the first match but the encounter between DBMSC Steel and SFS went down to the very last ball.

At that point, with SFS batting, the scores were tied and the match could have gone either way.

But it was the steel men who came out on top when Krishna dismissed Shamil to give DBMSC a heart-stopping win by five runs.

The DBMSC side had scored 60 and there was a question mark over whether it would be enough, especially as only 17 runs came from the second half of the innings.

That impression of a score that was not quite up to par was reinforced as SFS made a flying start, scoring 21 from the first three overs and 13 in the next three.

But gradually DBMSC worked its way back into the match to set up the unforgettable conclusion.

SFS’s only consolation was that it had the player of the match in its ranks.

That award went to Omer, whose innings of 15 at the top of the order – the top score of the match – gave his side a great platform, one that sadly from an SFS perspective, proved impossible to build upon.

It is the second time in this tournament the steel men have been involved in a final-ball thriller as they lost the opening Super Six encounter, against Grand Final opponents Danube, by just one run.

DBMSC will be hoping for a different outcome when the two sides meet again with the big prize up for grabs.

Danube crushed Oxford Marine in the other semi-final. Batting first, the defending champion scored 73, a total that might have been even higher but for a late wobble which saw just 12 runs come from the final three overs.

Danube’s skill is to put runs on the board and then squeeze the life out of opponents with high-class bowling and fielding, and that is exactly what its players did to Oxford, taking 13 wickets in 12 overs as the Marines finished with a score of minus two runs.

It retained Danube’s unbeaten run in this year’s tournament, stretching it to nine matches – three in the pool stage, five in the Super Six stage and now this semi-final.