By Syed Mussarat Khalil

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — All-rounder Nadeem Baber showed a splendid all-round performance in the second round matches for the Saudi Cricket Talent Hunt Program under the strategic development program of Saudi Cricket Center (SCC) played at Riyadh, Dammam and Yanbu simultaneously.

In Riyadh at RCL ground, Central Falcons Blue (CFB) won by 67 runs. Batting first, CFB amassed 406-7 in the allotted 50 overs with opener Abdul Waheed 110 retired hurt off 90 balls that included one six and 11 fours. This was his second consecutive century in the program. Irshad Mubashir 88, Bilal Wani 31, Hasan Javed 29, Nasir Abbasi 22, Ali Murtaza 22, Malik Fahad 15 and Hisham 52 not out batted well. Nadeem Baber grabbed 2 wickets for 88 runs and Faisal Khan finished with 4 for 52.

In reply, Central Falcons Green (CFG) openers Nadeem Baber and Faisal Khan gave a sound start. Faisal scored 55 off 36 balls with the help of one six and 10 boundaries. Nadeem Baber retired after scoring splendid 121 off 144 balls with one six and 12 hits to the fence. Amir 38, Mujahid Khan 27, Iftikhar Ali 20, Abdullah Azhar 17, Muzaffar Majeed 17 and Majid Bashir 15 tried to achieved the winning target but were all out for 339 in 48.3 overs. Samiullah Baltistani claimed 3 and Irshad Mubashir 2 wickets for 52 and 34 runs respectively.

In Dammam at EPCA ground, Eastern Daredevils (EDB) defeated EDG by 3 wickets. EDG batted first and were all out for 271 runs in 48.5 overs. Kashif Abbas 34, Shoib Aziz 25, Sajid Cheema 42, Abdul Wahab 33, Afaq Ahmed 28, Mohammed Azeem 17, Junaid A. Rehman 14, Zeeshan Butt 13 and Asim Nawaz contributed 25 runs. Mohsin Saleem 4-48 and Imran Muneer 3-55.

In reply EDB reached the target in 47.1 overs for the loss of 7 wickets. Opener Saad Khan batted beautifully and remained unbeaten on 139, Umar Hayat 33, Imran Arif 22, Imran Munir retired hurt 50 were the other scorers. Mohammed Nadeem 3-52 and Shoib Aziz 3-13.