ALKHOBAR, 20 December 2002 — In the final of the ADPCO Ramadan Cup Kanoo beat arch rival AGE by 54 runs. Thanks to Munawwar Hussain, the captain of Kanoo, who showed his class with the bat, bowl and his excellent leadership quality. Kanoo batted first and put on 183 runs in their allotted 20 overs. Captain Munawwar and Zulfiqar Goga put on 141 runs partnership for the first wicket and in fact laid the winning foundation for Kanoo.
Munawwar was awesome. He played glorious strokes in every corner of the ground and was unfortunately retired hurt after scoring a valuable 75 runs which included 5 boundaries. Zulfiqar also got retired hurt after scoring quick 27 runs. Iqbal Bali join Qaiser after the fall of two quick wickets and took his team to victory. He batted very sensibly scoring 35 runs and rotating strike with his young partner Qaiser who hit a towering six and one boundary and remain not out on 22 runs.
In reply, AGE needed to score at an average of 9 runs per over and this was not easy against a fine bowling and superb fielding side. AGE lost their first wicket when the score was just 7 runs. Rizwan joined Waheed and the pair put on 44 runs partnership for the second wicket when Rizwan (25 runs) was smartly caught by Bali off the bowling of Naheed and in a very similar fashion, Waheed lost his wicket after scoring 22 runs.
At this crucial stage of the match Ayub Khan ripped through the AGE batting line up and claimed 3 wickets. Veteran Atiq showed his class behind the stumps. He kept the wicket superbly and and was involved in 4 dismissals. AGE batting order totally collapsed under pressure and they were all out for 129 runs. Naheed , Bali and Munawwar took 2 wickets each. (Syed Iqbal Talib)
