JEDDAH, 1 November — Young Athlete and Traco Green scored convincing wins against SGB Baroom and IDB in the 2nd week matches of the 14th Kanoo League (Premier Division). While Young Athlete recorded a 23 runs win over SGB Baroom, Traco Green trounced IDB by 133 runs. Elsewhere, Kanoo scored a 6-wicket win over Traco and Sadafco beat UMA by 7 wickets.
Young Athlete got off to a fine start as openers Shabbir and Nadeem rattled off 48 in 6 overs before Shabbir was out for 23. Nadeem and Hussain who has been in good knick put on 74 runs for the 2nd wicket. Nadeem was out for 55 with 3 fours and a 6. Hussain continued from where he had left in the previous match and raced to his 2nd successive half-century. He played some beautiful strokes and hit 8 fours and a six in his 76 runs before being dismissed. Usman with a quickfire 31 and Tauqueer (20) managed to give Young Athlete a fighting score of 279 for 8 in 35 overs. Rashid Butt was the only bowler to command respect picking up 4 for 35 runs.
In reply, SGB Baroom were indebted to Rashid Butt who scored a brilliant century and single-handedly carried his team. So, long as he was there SGB Baroom had hope of reaching the target. He scored a superb 117 with 10 fours and a 6 and was given good support by Manjeet (55) with whom he put on 129 runs for the 2nd wicket and Sarfaraz (20). However both Rashid & Manjeet fell within 3 runs of each other. SGB Baroom finally folded for 256 to give Young Athlete their first win of the league. Shoaib (4 for 51) and Shabbir (3 for 43) did most of the damage.
Traco Green raced to an imposing score of 362 for the loss of 4 wickets in 35 overs. Niaz scored a superb century. He was in very aggressive mood from the word go as he blasted all bowlers to all croners of the field. So dominating was he that the 100 runs partnership came up in only 7 overs and when the 1st wicket fell at 104 Kaleem had scored only 18 runs. Niaz hit 21 fours and a 5 in his 111 runs and was instrumental in giving as solid foundation on which the other batsmen built up. Nisar (55 with 3 fours and 2 sixes and Shahzad with a brilliant 72 runs enabled their team to reach 362 for 4. In reply, IDB had no answer and were bundled out for 229 runs. Shoaib (40), Faiyaz (50), Abdullah (34) and Azam (22) scored well but the asking rate was a bit too high and Traco Green finally won by 133 runs. Tariq (3 for 42) and Shazaad (2 for 27) bowled well.
Kanoo began their innings on a winning note as they defeated Traco by 6 wickets. Batting first, Traco led by a superb 138 by former Kanoo’s Faisal Butt who took apart all Kanoo bowlers. He pulled and hooked with impunity to anything pitched short and was fluent in his drives when the ball was pitched up to him. He raced to his fifty and soon to his 100 in 70 balls and finally was out for 138 in 93 balls with 12 fours and 7 huge sixes.
He was given good support by Hamid Rana (32) and Azeem (42) as Wasif picked up 4 for 59. In reply Kanoo openers Wasif and Mohammed were off to a good start as they scored at 8 an over. Mohammed was in fine form as he raced to his rare fifty but was soon dismissed for 56 in 41 balls. Nadeem Amin came and scored 35 and along with Wasif put on 80 runs for the 3rd wicket. Wasif played a patient innings and was in sight of a century when he was dismissed 3 short of it for a valiant 97 runs. After his departure, the two quickies of Kanoo Shahid Maulana (32 n.o.) and Naeem Amin (25 n.o.) put on 61 runs for the unfinished 5th wicket and ensured a Kanoo win by 6 wickets at 275 for 4 in 31.4 overs. Javed picked up 2 for 42.
Sadafco raced to a 7-wicket win over UMA as they reached the target of 168 for the loss of only 3 wickets in only 19.5 overs. Opener Zafar (81) and Ishaque (57) put on 123 runs for the 1st wicket as they went for the bowling from the start. Zafar after a good bowling stint shone with the bat also as he played some excellent strokes. He scored 81 of 54 balls with 11 fours before being dismissed. Ishaq scored a sedate 54 runs. Earlier, UMA folded up for 167 runs as Nadeem ran through the lower order taking 4 wickets for only 12 runs. Earlier, Zafar had made early in-roads taking 2 for 29. From UMA only opener Arif with patient 58 put up a stiff resistance with Khalid (33) and Mohsin (21) supporting him, the rest of the batsmen just caved in.
