By DR. SAYED ZIAUDDIN
JEDDAH — Timex Lothers emerged the winner of the WPCA Garameesh Rusk Super League Cup 2017 after beating SMGI Nestle Milo in the final here recently.
The color-kit tournament, organized and managed by WPCA, ran for almost four months and was sponsored mainly by Garameesh Rusk. The co-sponsors included Advisor 360, Crown Steel, Saudi Cricket Centre (SCC), Zultrack, Cool & Cool, Thales Group, Nesma Holding, Lothers and Lays.
Timex Lothers defeated ALS Warriors in the quarterfinals and Zultec in the semis to advance to the final. The entire final match was telecast live on the facebook for the benefit of cricket enthusiasts all over the world with lively ball by ball commentary.
Timex Lothers thrashed SMGI Nestle Milo by 42 runs. Timex Lothers piled up 170-9. Prolific Moazzam Shoukat began in an aggressive fashion but fell for 22, while Waqas made 10. Samiullah Khan stood firm in the middle to hammer 47 in 39 balls as skipper Abdul Waahid scored 26, Ibrarul Haq 14, Hafiz Jaffar 14 and Ali Shah 10. Sher Bahadur (2-18) bowled well to restrict the opponents, while Adalat took 2-22, Mohammed Yasir 2-47 and Abdullah Zahid 1-34.
SMGI Nestle Milo, in reply, started disastrously as it lost 5 wickets for 27 as Ibrarul Haq just ran through the Nestle batting lineup. SMGI could not recover from this early knock. The top 6 batsmen could not touch the double digits. Bilal Malik scored the highest with 53 in 46 balls with 7 fours and Sher Bahadur stroked 16. Naeem (2), Fayyaz (7), Waseem (0), Imran Sarwar (9), Abdullah Zahid (1) and Mohammed Yasir (9) failed miserably. Ibrarul Haq ended up the wrecker in chief with 4-16, while a wicket each went to Samiullah Khan 1-26, Abdulwaahid 1-18, Moazzam Shoukat 1-33, Ali Mohammed 1-25 and Ali Shah 1-4.
Man of the Final: Ibrarul Haq. Umpires: Attaurrehman and Imran Amir. Match Referee: Kashif Mirza. Commentators: Naushad MMM and Dr. Zia. Live telecast: Rahat Choudhry and Junaid.
The prize distribution ceremony took place after the match at the ground with dignitaries from Garameesh, Advisor 360, SCC, WPCA and other invited guests attending the function.
The program started with the recitation of Holy Qur’an by Hafiz Jafar. A brief account of the WPCA Garameesh Rusk Super League 2017 was presented by the moderator Dr. Zia. The League started on May 12, 2017 after a grand launching ceremony on May 3 at the Radisson Royal Suites. Nineteen Clubs were in the fray and a total of 88 matches were played.
Service Awards were presented to the umpires and scorers.
Other awardees were:
Best Batsman — Usman Gulab of IDB Group; Best Bowlerof — Abu Huraira of Zultec; Best Wicketkeeper — Humayun Khan of ALS Warriors; Man of the Final — Ibrarul Haq of Timex Lothers; Player of the Tournament — Moazzam Shoukat of Timex Lothers.
The awardees received trophies with gifts and mementos sponsored by Zultrack, Cool & Cool, Lothers, Nesma holding and Thales Group.
A special prize for winning maximum Man of the Match awards went to Bilal Kiyani of Red Sea ALJ. He was presented with a bat sponsored by Thales Group.
The winner’s Cup, along with a cash prize of SR10001 was handed over to the Timex Lothers skipper Abdul Waahid Khan whereas the runner-up Cup and a cash prize of SR 5005 were given to Abdullah Zahid, skipper SGMI Nestle Milo.
