Crown Steel bags Premier crown

Dr. Sayed Ziauddin JEDDAH — Crown Steel thrashed IDBG by 5 wickets to win the coveted Premier 35-Over full day tournament here recently. Javed Iqbal was adjudged the Man of the Final. Sohail Shah and Kashif Mirza officiated the match, while Nadeem Shabbir was the match referee. Officials from IDBG and Crown Steel graced the final. Jotun Paints, Waqas Malik XI and Awesome won their respective matches in the WPCA Afternoon division. IDBG, opting to bat, posted 183. It lost wickets at regular intervals to be tottering at 92-7. Gulam Mustafa made 31 and Fahad contributed 21 as other batsmen failed. Usman Gulab then hit 36 and Sufiyan Zubair 28 as they added 59 for the 8th wicket. Zahid Anwar compiled 17. Wahid Khan took 3-34, Javed Iqbal 3-35, while Murtuza, Ijaz Sagheer and Shoaib Ali took one wicket each. Crown Steel reached 185-5 in 138 balls. Shafeeq Ahmed hit 25 as he added 61 for the first wicket with Murtuza (44). Man of the Final Javed Iqbal then smashed 42 and Waqas Ausaf 48 to add together 80 in 68 balls and to get to 155 by the 21st over. Usman Gulab took 2-29 and one wicket each went to Sufiyan and Zahid Anwar. Afternoon Division Awesome XI humbled AMI Juffali by 85 runs. Awesome XI racked up 198-9 through Bobby (37), Farhad (30), Khaleel (42), Shakir (17) and Khadim (17). Habib was the pick of the bowlers with 3-27 and Najam claimed 2-29. AMI Juffali, in reply, was restricted to 113-6. Saboor hit 23, Imad 23 and Najam Uzbak an unbeaten 18. Naveed took 2-28. Jotun Paints edged past Al-Safri by one wicket on the last ball to get into the last eight. Al-Safri produced 181-7. Aftab Malik remained unbeaten on 99 off 52 balls with 11 fours and 3 sixes. He stitched 72 for the 5th wicket with Manjeet Kumar (38) after the team was tottering at 55-4. Hassan grabbed 2-16 and Akram 2-36. Jotun Paints successfully chased down the target (183-9) as Wajid Abbasi hammered 73 in 49 balls, Hafeez Arif 22, Wajid Khurshid 19 and Waqas 16. Rizwan took 3-30. Waqas Malik crushed Contraco by 225 runs. Waqas Malik XI plundered a mammoth 296-2. Waqas smashed 60 in 22 balls, Shahid 52 in 25 balls, Junaid an unbeaten 90 off 45 balls with 15 fours and Rana Haroon an unbeaten 65 in 40 balls. Contraco, in reply, crashed to 71. Babar made 16, Mohsin 15 and Amjad 16. Abid claimed 3-11, Razzaq 3-33 and Waqas 2-20. Hyderabad Strikers won against Aziziya Elegant by 46 runs. Hyderabad Strikers piled up 198-4, thanks to Irfan Ayazuddin blasting 127 in 56 balls with 10 fours and 8 sixes. He added 102 first for the third wicket with Sohail (34) and then 78 for the fourth wicket with Zahid (14) after the team was struggling at 6-2. Atif took 2-38. Aziziya Elegant was restricted to 152-8. Atif compiled 43 and Hamza 38. All-rounder Irfan Ayazuddin grabbed 3-14, Zahid 3-24 and Afreed 2-21.