RIYADH, 15 February — Zakiuddin, Madhu, Zainuddin, Rajkumar and Sudesh stole limelight in the ongoing YBA Kanoo Central Province inter-division softball cricket tournament at Kanoo cricket grounds, Riyadh.
In matches played from Feb. 1, Joint Ventures beat Combined XI by 8 wickets while Travel Division got the better of Accounts by 18 runs. Batting first Combined XI were bowled out for just 47 runs in 10.1 overs. The main destroyer of Combined XI was Zainuddin. He took 4 wickets conceding 10 runs in his spell of 2.1 overs. Farooq Azam was the only batsman to reach double figures. He scored 10. In reply Joint Ventures helped by Sudesh’s 20 runs romped home in 9.2 overs losing just 2 wickets.
Later in the day, in a key match of the tournament Travel Division beat Accounts. Winning the toss and electing to bat Travel Division amassed 68 runs losing 8 wickets in stipulated 16 overs.
Syed Zakiuddin played well and topscored for Travel Division with 34 runs. Kiritharan bowled well for Accounts and took 3 wickets giving away 15 runs. Chasing the target, Accounts were bundled out for 50 runs. Only Hariprasad offered some resistance to Madhu’s hostile bowling. He made 14. Travel Division’s Madhu bowled to fine line and length and was rewarded with figures of 5 for 13 in his 4 overs. The other wicket-taker for Travel Division was Syed Zakiuddin with 2 for 11.
In matches played on Feb. 8 in a closely fought match, Joint Ventures beat Services by 5 runs while later in the day Accounts overwhelmed Combined XI by 8 wickets. Winning the toss and taking the first strike Joint Ventures put up a healthy score of 74 runs in allotted 16 overs with Rahul Misra making 18 runs with one hit to the fence. For Services, Tabriz and Adil Mirza took 2 wickets each giving away 11 and 12 runs respectively. In reply, Services fought hard but their spirited reply fell short by 5 runs. Adil Mirza made 19 for Services.
Sudesh bowled well for Services and took 4 wickets conceding 19 runs. In the second match of the day, Accounts coasted to an easy 8 wickets win over Combined XI. Combined XI electing to bat after winning the toss made 57 runs losing 9 wickets in stipulated 16 overs. Zaheer made 14 for Combined XI. Rajkumar of Accounts was the wrecker in chief of Combined XI’s batting. He took 5 wickets giving away 11 runs in his 4 overs.
The tournament is sponsored by Norwich Union Insurance with Air India, Gulf Air and KLM as co-sponsors.
