Dr. Sayed Ziauddin

JEDDAH – Unbeaten China Airlines will take on My Care Hala Green for the WPCA Afternoon honors. My Care Hala Green convincingly defeated Al-Safree and China Southern Airlines downed Desert Lions in the semifinals.
In the Summer Afternoon matches, Munch Bakery, Dopco Young Stars, HA Blue and MCC emerged winners.
China Southern Airlines opted to bat first and was reduced to 66-6 by the 10th over with the cream of the top order back in the pavilion. Skipper Abdullah Zahid came in at this juncture and started to build up the innings with ones and twos and later he opened up to hit five fours to compile an unbeaten 58 in 40 balls.
Shoukat, who made 33, also helped to get to a competitive total of 152 in the allotted 20 overs without losing any further wickets. Earlier among the ruins, Faheem stood firm to make 25. Mifraz was the pick of the bowlers who took 3-33. Ramazan and Rohan claimed one wicket each.
Desert Lions, chasing this moderate target, put up a pathetic batting display to be bundled out for 105 with only Gamini making an unbeaten 20 and Umar 15. Tauseef grabbed 3-22, Farooq 2-8 while Adalat, Asim and Fahad claimed one wicket each.
Put into bat, My Care Hala Green scored runs at will to maintain a run rate above 11 as Azhar top scored with 64 in 31 balls and Hassan Malik made 50 in 24 balls. They added 99 for the second wicket in 44 balls. Rizwan then hit 20 in 9 balls to get to mammoth 227-8. Atul scalped 3-35, Abdulrauf 2-34 while Mubashir and Wasiq got one wicket each.
Al-Safree, chasing 228 with almost 12 runs per over, lost wickets at regular intervals to be 58-5 from where it was restricted to 143. Manjeet Kumar battled alone for 54 runs and Sami made 19. Atta took 3-15, Salman 2-19, Azhar 2-23 and Osama 2-25. One wicket went to Farhad.
Jotun Paints put up 148-9 against MCC through Shabbir 36, Saleem Butt 34 and Shafiq 29. Iqbal claimed 2-2 and Nasir 2-29. MCC was home with Amir Shahzad making 45, Jamil unbeaten 34 and Abdulbasit 34 to reach 149-5 in 102 balls. Zafar took 2-16 and Shahzad 2-25.
Hala Academy Blue batted first against Zultrack and piled up 177-6 through Ramazan 38, Osman 36 and Amjad 32. Subail got 2-18 and Naveed 2-43. In reply, Zultrack was bowled out for 125 to lose by 52 runs with Naveed making 26 and Khadim 21. Abdulrafeeq scalped 3-21, Ramazan 2-18 and Shahbaz 2-29.
Dopco Young Stars amassed 223-4 in 20 overs, thanks to Ali who blasted an unbeaten 136 in 60 balls which was studded with 17 fours and five sixes. His hundred came off 45 balls. He was well supported by Afzal who hit 43. They added 134 for the third wicket. Nadeem Shabbir grabbed 3-34. Nestle Milo, in reply, crumbled to 94 as Kashif took 3-11, Faiz 2-8 and Saif 2-16. Sajjad resisted with 29 and Ejaz 21.
Munch Bakery restricted AOT Youngsters to 120 to taste victory. Zainulhuda took 3-18 and helped in two run-outs while Mubeen accounted for 2-14. Abid and Zakir stroked 24 each and Rafiq made 23. Zainulhuda took 3-18 and effected two run-outs. Mubeen had 2-14. Earlier, Munch Bakery had set 139 through Mubashir 36 and Shahzad 19. Ali grabbed 3-15, Rafiq 2-21 and Abid 2-25.