MANILA, 18 June 2004 — Saudia Milk, Mahmood Saeed, Sadafco and SGB Baroom qualified for the semifinals of Kanoo League (Premier Division) sponsored by Kanoo Group of Companies and organized by JCL. In the last week matches Saudia Milk narrowly beat Young Athlete by 6 runs to top the table (14 points), Sadafco defeated IDB comfortably by 54 runs to stand 3rd (14 points) and SGB Baroom got a walk over against UMA to stand fourth (12 points). In the semifinals Saudia Milk play SGB Baroom whereas Mahmood Saeed battle out against Sadafco.
Sadafco scored a facile 54 run win over IDB. Sadafco were reduced to 26 for 2 and then to 77 for 3 but a 63 runs partnership between Pervez Khan and Haroon Abdullah saw them stabilize the innings. Parvez was steady but quick in running between the wickets. He hit 3 fours in his 65 runs before being out. Later Haroon continued with solid support from Zafar and built his innings slowly and steadily hitting 8 fours and a six in his unbeaten 89 runs before retiring. Thereafter Zafar (52 NO – 5 fours) and Abbas with a quickfire 32 inclusive of 2 fours and 2 sixes batted with responsibility. The unfinished 5th wicket partnership was worth 163 runs, which enabled Sadafco reach an impressive 278 for 4 in 35 overs. In reply, IDB were restricted to 224 for 8, to give Sadafco a 54 runs win. Some accurate bowling by Haroon (3 for 26), Ibrahim (2 for 29) and Zahid (2 for 54) put the brakes on IDB for whom only Rashid (45), Javed (36), Abid (31) and Mohammed (22 N.O) offered resistance.
Saudia Milk put up an impressive score of 272 for 7 in 35 overs against Young Athlete. Opener Mustafa Butt was in fine and aggressive knick as he toyed with the Athletes bowling hitting 71 runs of 50 balls inclusive of 9 fours and a six. His fellow opener Javed gave him good company with a quick 39 runs off 31 balls to put on 103 runs for the opening wicket in 11 overs. Thereafter they lost quick wickets to slump to 136 for 4. However Arif with a hurricane unbeaten 50 off 21 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes and with support from Shakir (28) and Imran (23) gave respectability to the team’s tally of 272 for 7. Ahmed picked up 2 for 27. In reply, the Athletes like always gave a tough time to the Milkmen as they went about the chase in right earnest. Opener Nadeem was in smashing form as he took the attack to the opponents’ camp with some delightful batting. He raced to his 50 and then to his well-deserved century. Along with opener Ahmed (32) he put on 99 runs for the first wicket. Thereafter he single-handedly took on the challenge and at one stage with the score at 200 for 3, it looked that the Athletes will make it. Nadeem kept on going further and stroked a superb 140 runs off 98 balls with 15 fours and 2 sixes before he was out leg before. With his departure the Young Athletes challenge collapsed to 266 for 9 with some fine bowling by Shakir (3 for 53), Arif (3 for 45) and Anees (2 for 17) to give Saudia Milk a narrow 6 runs win.
