DAMMAM, 26 April — The Arab News-Power Horse inter-school cricket tournament got off to a fine start last Thursday with some superb batting and bowling of youngsters representing eight teams vying for the glittering Arab News-Power Horse Cup. The highlight of the tournament was a superb century by International Indian School (Blue-Seniors) skipper Raees Khan.

In all eight teams are participating in the tournament which is being supervised by the Eastern Province Cricket Association. All the matches were played at Steidle Ground.

The first match of the tournament between Rahima Academy and Dhahran Academy proved to be a very close encounter but finally Rahima Academy players kept their cool and defeated Dhahran Academy by 33 runs. Having advantage of taking first strike, Rahima Academy scored 155 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in stipulated 20 overs. Main scorers were Umraz 18, Mudassar 17 and Qasim 16 runs. Omar of Dhahran Academy claimed 3 wickets.

In reply, Dhahran Academy’s Deepak gave a good fight to Rahima Academy attack and scored 37 runs. But after him there was little resistance and Dhahran Academy kept loosing wicket at regular interval. Nomi Shah (17) and Omar Khan (14) were the other top scorers. Umair, Mudassar and Shiraz took two wickets each.

In another match, International Indian School (Blue-Seniors) defeated Asian International School. The highlight of this match was a superb century by Indian school captain Raees Khan, whose innings was studded with 11 fours and a mighty six. Raees was well supported by Omar Rizvi who also scored a half-century which included six boundaries. Indian schoolboys piled up mammoth 198 runs in 20 overs for the loss of only three wickets. Ammar Hasham and Mohsin claimed one wicket each. Asian schoolboys, a comparatively young team took the challenge and put a courageous resistance. But some reckless running between the wicket cost them dearly and they could put only 149 runs for the loss of seven wickets. Sajjad of Asian school gave some nervous moments to Indian school lads. He scored 32 runs. For Indian school, Faraj took two wickets while Shamim, Omar, Vivek and Anees took one wicket each.

In another one-sided match, Pakistani International School-Green beat Indian International School-Red by seven wickets. Indian School-Red batted first, and were restricted to 121 for the loss of seven wickets. Abdul Azeem with a superb knock of 53 runs gave some respectability to the Indian school’s total. The little master hit five boundaries and a majestic straight six over long off. Waheed (17) and Mohammed Yaqoub (14) were the other batsmen reaching double figures. Nadeem, Muqeem and Asif of Pakistani school took two wickets each.

In reply, Pakistani schoolboys launched an onslaught on Indian school bowling and reached the target in just 14 overs with a superb knock by Nabeel who scored 57 runs with 8 hits to the fence. Asif scored a breezy 32 and Ali Iftikhar 15 runs. Sujeet boweld well and claimed two wickets while Nabeel Ahmad took one wicket.

In the last match between Pakistan School White and Manarat School, it was a completely one-sided affair and Pakistani school which batted first piled up mammoth 214 runs for the loss of four wickets. Kashif with six boundaries and a mighty six scored 54 runs. Mubbashir, Moazzam and Salman chipped in with 33, 31 and 21 runs respectively. Manarat School was bundled out for 137 runs.

The tournament was well supervised by Sikandar Farooqi and Zaheer Ahmad. Suhaib Kidwai was the chief scorer.