MADINAH — Al-Hateem crushed Taiba XI by 114 runs in the final to emerge champion of the Madinah Cricket League (MCL) Tournament.

Taiba XI won the toss and elected to bowl against Al-Hateem in the final. Mudassir and Khalid opened the innings but the latter got out early and Hammad Saeed joined Mudassir in the middle. Mudassir played a very good innings to bring up his fourth fifty-plus score in a row. He ended up blasting 75 off 33 balls and Hammad slammed 56 off 25 deliveries. Al-Hateem amssed 141 in 10 overs before both Mudasser and Hammad got out. Just when the bowlers thought they’ve done enough to avoid a big target, Arslan Mushtaq stepped in and played a captain’s knock by smashing Taiba bowling attack to all parts of the ground. He remained unbeaten on 84 from 36 balls to tally 277-5 in the allotted 20 overs and almost kept the rival out of the match. Barket and Akram took two wickets each.

In reply, Taiba was given a good start by Omer (45 off just 17 deliveries) and Javed (25 from 10 balls). Shamshad also contributed 48. Omer played a quick-fire knock and it was almost 50 runs in mere 3 overs but the target was so mountainous that Taiba never looked like getting anywhere near it without a big innings which never arrived as Arslan Mushtaq was yet again leading from the front by taking 3 important wickets. He bowled a great line and length. Irfan and Hammad chipped in with 2 wickets each to bowl out rivals for 163.

The following won the performace awards:

Arslan Mushtaq of Al Hateem — Player of the Final for his outstanding all-round performance; Hammad Saeed of Al-Hateem — Player of the Tournament; Mudasser Mughal of Al-Hateem Best Batsman of the Tournament and Waseem Khan Al-Hateem — Best Bowler of the Tournament.

Saudi Cricket Center (SCC) official Qasim Naqvi and Wasif Ali Qureshi awarded the prizes. — SG