By Dr. Sayed Ziauddin
JEDDAH — Zultec, Lothers and ALJ Toshiba emerged the WPCA Premier, Afternoon and Morning champions, respectively. In the finals Zultec defeated AOT, Lothers beat Waqas Malik CC and ALJ Toshiba prevailed over Al-Kabbani Cricket Group.
Zultec thrashed AOT by 10 wickets in the Premier final. AOT posted 162-7. Aqeel made 18, Gulam Mustafa 38, Naeem Shah unbeaten 32, Qaiser Lateef 12, while Maqsood and Ilyas hit 10 each. Mohammed Taiyyab scalped 2-17, Wahid Khan 2-36, Wajahat Shah 2-34 and Imran Yusuf 1-34.
In reply, Zultec made it easy as it reached 164 in 85 balls without loss. Amer Sajjad, who was later chosen as Man of the Final, hammered an unbeaten 89 in 46 balls with 10 fours and 3 sixes and Waqar Ahmed remained unbeaten on 56 off 32 balls with 2 sixes and 6 fours.
The match was supervised by Waseeq Sherwani and Shareefuddin as umpires, while Sohail Shah was the match referee.
Lothers defeated Waqas Malik CC by 31 runs in the Afternoon final. Lothers, opting to bat, piled up 189-8. Moazzam Shoukat smashed 45 as Yasar made 7. Bilal then hit 28, Abdulwaheed 43 and the two added 55 to get to 115 for 2. Iftikhar made 32, Shamsuddin 15 and Khurram Azeez 10. Fayaz took 3-32, Danish 3-39, Waqas Malik 1-28 and Zahoor 1-29.
Waqas Malik, in reply, was restricted to 158-6. Skipper Waqas Malik hit 33 and added 43 with Hafiz Adeel (24). Rana Haroon contributed 21, Zahoor 29, Rashid 24 and Azeem unbeaten 15. Badushah grabbed 2-25, Moazzam Shoukat 2-26 and Iftikhar 2-28.
Rahat Ali and Imran Amir were the umpires and Sohail Shah the match referee. Man of the Final award went to Moazzam Shoukat.
ALJ Toshiba had the last laugh against Al-Kabbani Cricket Group by 45 runs in the Morning final. ALJ Toshiba piled up 185 after electing to bat. Amir Siddiqui hammered 62 in 28 balls with 10 fours and a six as he added 74 with Tanveer Zamane (11) for the first wicket. Then it lost 3 wickets in q uick succession to be reduced to 79-3.
Amir Gujjar then smashed 55 in 35 balls with 4 sixes and 2 fours, Bilal Kayani 15, Aftab and Basheer 11 each. Asad bowled devastatingly to claim 5-28 and Imran Qaiser bowled magnificently to take 4-58.
Al-Kabbani Cricket Group, in reply, was bowled out for 140. Lone Imran Qaiser tried in vain to hit 76 in 34 balls with 11 fours and 2 sixes as he added 80 for the opening stand with Faisal Qayyum (12), the only other batsman to have crossed the double digit mark.
Once the opening partnership was broken it lost wickets in a heap to be tottering at 101-5 from where it just collapsed. Amir Siddique grabbed 3-25, Bilal 2-26, Ali 2-24 and Basheer 1-7.
Kashif Mirza and Hasnain Ali were the umpires and Sohail Shah the match referee. Man of the Final was Amir Siddiqui.
