JEDDAH, 28 May 2004 — Kashif of Mehmood Saeed and Rashid of Contraco hit centuries to lead their team to victory while Kaleem of Sadafco and Fahad of SGB Green too scored tons, but in a losing cause on a day of run fest at the fresly rolled grounds.
Nadeem of Young Athlete, Amer Syed of Saudia Milk, Rashid Malik of IDB and Manjeet Kumar of SGB Baroom misses joining the century club, while Kamran of Mehmood Saeed, Shoeb Ali of SGB Green, Ahmed of Young Athlete and Kaleem of Contraco hit half centuries. The bowlers to catch the eye were Mohammad Amjad of Mehmood Saeed, Irfan of Contraco and Imran of Saudia Milk, all taking 4 wickets each in the 9th week matches of the Jeddah Cricket League (JCL) Premier League sponsored by Kanoo.
Mehmood Saeed's Kashif followed up on his magnificent century last week, with another this week against Young Athlete. He dominated the strike as fellow opener Irfan (27) and than Asgar (26) helped pile on the runs. Left-handed Kamran pitched in with 66 and Farooq blasted 24 as Mehmood Saeed totaled 289 for 6 in 35 overs. Extras were 29. Saleem 3 for 43, Shakeel 2 for 35 and Hussein 1 for 53 stood out.
Young Athlete were off toa flying start with openers Nadeem and Ahmed wielding the long handle. Nadeem cracked 95 and Ahmed 61 as the runs flowed easily. But once Kashif removed both these batsmen, Young Athlete folded for 269, which included 25 extras. Mohammad Amjad took 4 for 40 and Kashif took 3 for 50 for Mahmood Saeed.
Contraco batting first piled up 331 for 6 wickets in 35 overs. Opener Rashid was in stupendous form as he racked up 123 and in the company of Kaleem, who hit a magnificent 63, Imran 49 and Mohsin Mirza 46 boosted Contraco. Shoeb Ali and Amer took 2 wickets each while Fahad and Omer took one wicket each for SGB Green.
SGB Green too started well as Shahbaz 22 and Shoeb Ali patiently kept to the required run rate. Shoeb made 66 runs and than Amer hit 20 as SGB Green stayed in the hunt. Fahad, who hit a century, played sensibly and took his team close. But his efforts were in vain as SGB Green could muster only 275 for 8. Irfan was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 58, while Shakeel had 2 for 52 and Shiraz and Amjad grabbed a wicket each.
SGB Baroom posted a moderate total of 240 in 34.3 overs against IDB. Manjeet Kumar, a consistent scorer, tallied 88 while Zeeshan 41, Zahid 28 also contributed to their team's moderate total. Jawad took 3 wickets, Misbah took 2 wicket while Fayez, Attah and Jawed Khan took one wicket each for IDB. In reply, IDB hammered the runs in 33.1overs with openers Rashid Malik hitting a dashing 89 runs and Attah grafting a polished 57. Both played sensibly to achieve the target. They piled up the runs with the help of singles and doubles and occasionally hit the boundary as they paced their knock cleverly. Other contributors with the bat were Waseem 28 n.o. and Abid 25 n.o. Qasim Naqwi and Waseeq shone with the ball taking 2 wickets each, as IDB won by 5 wickets.
Sadafco, batting first against Saudia Milk, began brightly with Syed Kaleem and M. Ilyas playing confidently. Ilyas fell for 28 runs but Pervez Khan (25) and Kaleem then boosted the score as Kaleem completed his 100 to lift Sadafco. Haroon 23 and Zafar 24 too contributed but Sadafco ended up with 225. Imran took 4 for 44, Shaker Khan and Amer Syed took 2 wickets each while Farooq picked up one wicket. Saudia Milk too started well with Mohammad Javed (23) and Mustafa Butt (33) giving them a base. Then Amer, "the Hammer", planned his innings well and went on to score 90. Arif Mehmood (18) and captain Anis Malik (18) too contributed as Saudia Milk reached 227 for 6 in the 33rd over. Haroon, Zahid and Naeem Abbas took one wicket each for Sadafco.
