WPCA organizes festive inter-regional matches

By Dr. Sayed Ziauddin JEDDAH — AQCL downed WPCA Chairman’s XI by 6 wickets, while WPCA President XI went down to YACA by 39 runs after a good start and WPCA Committee XI beat MCL by 54 runs here. The matches were part of the Saudi National Day celebrations organized by Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA). Nesma Holding, Saudi Cricket Centre and Crown Steel sponsored the tournament. In the first match, AQCL defeated WPCA Chairman XI by 6 wickets. WPCA Chairman XI, put into bat, had a disastrous start as Shahid and Noman mesmerized the WPCA batsmen with their pace and reduced it to 38 for 4. Skipper Abdullah Essa hit 36 to stabilize the innings with Hasanat Ahmed (33) and Aftab Malik (30) to get to 173. Paceman Shahid impressed everyone to claim 3-34, Bilal took 3-20, Yasir 2-32, while Noman and Sajid claimed a scalp each. AQCL played like a champion to get to 175 for 4 in 129 balls. It lost Sajid (17) early. Yasir made 27. But it was the determined and solid innings by the Player-of-the-Match Noor Elahi, who hammered 67 in 40 balls, that did the trick. He added 103 with Basit (51) in 51 balls. Aftab Malik scalped 3-30 and Safiuddin 1-49. The match was supervised by Shareefuddin and Zafar while Naushad was the reserve umpire. Farrukh Sultan did the scoring. In the second match, YACA downed WPCA President’s XI by 39 runs. YACA, put into bat, racked up 224 for 3. Shoaib Azeez was in awesome touch as he smashed 102 in 59 balls studded with 5 sixes and 7 fours as he first added 53 with Naveed Hayat (29) and then 73 for the 2nd wicket with Waseem Dilawar (27) followed by 92 in 45 balls with Sharjeel Butt (52). Amjed Butt took 2-35. WPCA President’s XI started promisingly with Khurram Karamat hitting 35 to add 90 with Amer Sajjad (52). Humayun was run out for a well made 42. WPCA was riding high at 153 for 3 from where it lost its way to lose 7 wickets for 31 runs to be bowled out for 185. Fouad Shams made 12 and Amjed Jutt 16. Waseem was the most successful bowler with 5 wickets for 29, Naveed claimed 2-36 and Shoaib Azeez 2-20. Shoaib Azeez bagged the Man of the Match award for his century and 2 wickets. Saeed Ahmed from WPCA and Abdul Wahab from MCL were the umpires. Aijaz Shah was the scorer, while Naushad did the commentary. In the last match, WPCA Committee XI beat MCL by 54 runs. WPCA Committee, taking the strike first, was down 3-13. Imran Qaiser then blasted 129 in 47 balls to add 188 in 79 balls for the 4th wicket with Faisal Patel (69). Once the pair departed WPCA was restricted to 269 for 9 with only Rana Haroon making 15. Babar grabbed 3-54, Tauseef 2-56 and Israr 2-57. MCL chasing the mammoth target lost wickets at regular intervals but fought well against all odds. Israr was the top scorer with 50 as he added 61 with Bilal (37). Waji hit 36, Omar 13, Arsalan 15, Zahid 19 and Rashid 15. Waseem claimed 3-45, while Faisal, Imran Qaiser, Anwaar, Irfan and Tariq picked up a wicket each. The match was officiated by Imran Ghulam of WPCA and Ehsan Qureshi of YACA. Amer choudhry did the scoring.