JEDDAH, 30 January 2004 — Kanoo Commercial beat Kanoo Group by 7 wickets to lift the 7th Kanoo Inter-Division Cricket Cup for Western Province. A superb unbeaten 51 from Man of the Finals Altaf Qadri of Commercial overshadowed a hurricane knock of 70, with 9 sixes, by Dinesh Somani of Group in a gripping final.
Group, batting first, were soon in trouble as Commercial bowlers bowled a tight length to force the batsmen to hurry their shots and commit errors. Hari was leg before to Irshad, who then picked up the prize wicket of Yunus. Oliver hung around for 12 balls before Ayaz Bijli had him caught by Irshad and two balls later Group skipper Ayub Karkal (10) was the victim of the same combination.
Group were tottering at 41 for 5 in 9 overs but Dinesh kept the score moving. Vasi, the highest wickettaker of the league, chipped in with 2 wickets and Group were 73 for 9 in 15 overs. It was at this stage that Dinesh launched his fusillade; in 17 balls he changed the complexion of the innings blasting sixes after sixes. He first smashed Ayaz for 2 in the 16th over to a take 13 of it, then clobbered Vasi for 4 consecutive hoists in the 17th to take 27 runs of it and lastly plundered 14 off Shafi in the 18th over with two sixes before falling on the 5th ball. Dinesh put on 54 for the last wicket with Affan, who did not face a single ball. He scored a brilliant 70 runs off 35 balls with 9 huge sixes. Group ended with a reasonable tally of 127 as Irshad (3 for 14), Ayaz (2 for 22) and Vasiullah (2 for 41) stood out for Commercial.
In reply, Commercial’s opening pair of Qadri and Sharfuddin, went on the offensive from the start. Although Dinesh bowled two tight overs, Oliver was hoisted for 3 sixes in his 2 overs. With the score at 68 in 7.1 overs the first wicket fell, Sharfuddin in attempting a quick single was run-out for 25 with 3 sixes. Shafi departed soon, but Altaf ensured that Commercial did not suffer further hiccups as he chose his shots, mixing ones and twos, while picking the ball to be punished. He hit 3 sixes and 3 fours in his unbeaten 51 off 37 balls and was adjudged Man of the Finals. Commercial scoring at almost 10 an over reached the target of 130 for 3 in 13.2 overs. Group bowlers conceded 34 runs in wides.
At the prize distribution ceremony after the match, chief guest on the occasion Cees Van Vark, area manager of Kanoo, congratulated the winners and the runners-up and all who participated. He presented the performance awards and winners cup to Commercial skipper Shafi while runners-up cup was presented to Group skipper Ayub by Mustafa Kothari, business development manager of Kanoo Commercial.
In the match for the 3rd position Travel defeated Finance by 92 runs. Travel notched up 156 for 5 in 15 overs with skipper Aslam blasting the Finance bowlers for a whirlwind 76 with 6 sixes, the highest individual score of the current league. He received support from Rashid, who scored 18. In reply Finance were bundled out for 64 runs with Merchant top scoring with 14 n.o. as Travel won handsomely by 92 runs.
