KFSH, Lahore Lions begin RCA tourney with wins

RIYADH - The Riyadh Cricket Association (RCA) recently started a new tournament where 84 teams are participating. Teams are divided into four leagues – Al-Kharj, Huraymala, Hayer and Diriyah. Forty-over matches will be played in the Al-Kharj League, while T20 tournaments will be played in Huraymala, Hayer and Diriyah leagues. In Al-Kharj League, KFSH Riyadh Warriors started its campaign on a winning note by beating Amer Holidays by 59 runs. Put into bat, KFSH Riyadh Warriors started well with openers Nasir Abbasi and Nadeem Babar involved in a 100 plus opening partnership. Nasir Abbasi hit 104 and Nadeem Babar 44. After the fall of the openers, Amjad Ali (60), Mudassar Ali (52) and Ayaz Shah (51) took the total to 362-7 in 40 overs. Samiullah picked up 3 wickets. Chasing the huge total, Amer Holidays lost wickets at regular intervals and was all out for 303. Irfan Mushtaq top scored with 90 while Irfan Sarfaraz, Shams and Samiullah added 48, 35 and 34, respectively. Saqib Saleem was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets. Imtiaz Butt and Iftikhar Ali bagged 2 wickets each. Lahore Lions thrashed Riyadh Aces by 121 runs. Lahore Lions posted 325-8. Qamar top scored with 78 while Mansoor added 49. For Aces, Faheem, Danish and Tariq shared 2 wickets each. Riyadh Aces, in reply, managed 204. Faheem added 52. Muzaffar and Saud claimed 3 wickets each while Awais got 2. In another match, debutant Sinmar CC beat Riyadh Aces by 6 wickets. Riyadh Aces was bundled out for 109. Umar added 29. Ashik and Zain Ul Hassan scalped 3 wickets each. Sinmar was home in 13.4 overs. Ashik added 37 and Ishtiaq 30. Danish picked up 2 wickets. Matches in the Huraymala, Hayer and Diriyah leagues will start later. In a related development, RCA Team visited Bahrain to play 3 matches against Bahrain team. The series, played on a matting wicket, was won by Bahrain 2-1. After the conclusion of the tour, RCA CEO Nadeem Babar met with RCA Patron-in-Chief Prince Abdulaziz Bin Nasser Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and apprised him of the team’s tour to Bahrain. He also presented Prince Abdulaziz Bin Nasser the shield presented by Bahrain Cricket Association.