JEDDAH, 20 June 2003 — Jeddah Cricket League clinched the Triple Intercity crown against Eastern Province Cricket Association (EPCA). They won the main Intercity match convincingly beating EPCA by 52 runs, JCL President XI beat the EPCA President XI by 6 wickets with almost 6 overs to spare and the JCL Executive Committee defeated their EPCA counterpart by 5 wickets. In all, it was a clean sweep by JCL of all the intercity events.

EPCA won the toss and confident of chasing a target put JCL in to bat, which in the end proved to be a wrong decision. JCL openers Muhammad Niaz and Owais delighted at the offer went on the offensive from the word go. Niaz in particular was in aggressive mood as he started his first scoring shot — a six in the second over and went on to hit another in the 5th over of the innings. JCL raced to 50 in the 6th over and Niaz did bulk of the scoring racing to his 50 in 30 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes.

Owais also opened up and played some elegant shots. The century partnership came up in 10.3 overs. By the end of 15 overs, they were going at 10 an over and soon crossed the 150 partnership in 15.1 overs. Niaz punished all the bowlers with impunity, driving elegantly & forcefully and hooking and pulling ferociously, he raced to his century off 65 balls with 10 fours and 3 sixes.

Owais reached 50 off 56 balls but was soon dismissed — stumped for 63 off 47 balls with 8 fours as EPCA bowler Ishaq finally broke the opening stand at 176. Khalid Butt soon followed, needlessly run-out for a duck. Finally Niaz was dismissed for a superb 108 runs off 71 balls hitting 10 fours and 4 towering sixes. JCL slipped from 176 for no loss in the 19th over to 191 for 3 in the 22nd over. The middle order did not allow the openers work to go in waste as they built small partnerships.

Skipper Anees Malik (32) and Wajahat (19) continued the good work and the final touches were given by Rashid Butt who made a pugnacious unbeaten 47 as JCL ended at 319 for 9 in 40 overs. Talal Iqbal (3 for 51), Ejaz Saeed (1 for 60) and Ishaq (1 for 47) were the bowlers to command respect, as 4 of JCL batsmen were run out.

EPCA needed to get a quick start in order to chase the big target set by JCL. The first ball of the innings saw a return catch dropped and in the 3rd over another dropped in the slips. Skipper Munawar and Waseem then settled down and waited for the loose balls. They scored at 8 an over and just when it looked that they will lay a solid foundation, Munawar (12) had a rush of blood and hooked Azim straight to the hands of Owais with the score at 48 after 6 overs. Waseem found an able ally in Abdul Waheed and the two took the score to 85 before Waseem was dismissed by Amjad for a well made 41 off 32 balls with 6 hits to the fence. Although Waheed (56-2 fours) kept one end up and moving, wickets tumbled at the other end with the arrival of spinners who first subdued the batsmen with some tight bowling and in frustration the batsmen gave their wickets away, three of them bowled as they were reduced from 114 for 2 to 131 for 5. Waheed was out with the score at 167 and EPCA were soon tottering at 181 for 7. However, there was a spirited fight-back by the tail-enders especially Ishaq (52) and Amjad (26). Ishaq was in fine nick as he pierced the in-field quite often hitting 7 elegant fours but the writing was on the wall as EPCA folded eventually for 267 to give JCL a easy win by 52 runs. For JCL, bowlers Wajahat did most of the damage taking 3 for 56 and was well supported by Niaz (2 for 33), Amjad (2 for 42) and Azim (1 for 29).

Muhammad Niaz was declared Man of the Match for his superb all round performance scoring a brilliant 108 runs and then went on to take 2 wickets for 33.

At the end of the match prizes were distributed to the teams. Chief guests at the occasion were Samir Maddah Deputy Director General, KAIA and Khaled Al-Maeena Editor in Chief, Arab News. JCL received the Intercity winners trophy for winning both the matches. The Intercity Rolling shield was handed over by Syed Iqbal Talib — general secretary, EPCA — to Shahid Amin — president of JCL and the presentation was done by Samir Maddah.