ALKHOBAR, 5 April — In the EPCA Knockout Tournament sponsored by Saudi Valve Manufacturing Est. (SVM) Kanoo beat AGE by 40 runs in a very high scoring match. Kanoo won the toss and elected to bat first and put on 55 runs partnership for the first wicket when Zulfiqar Goga departed after scoring 34 beautiful runs which included 5 hits to the fence and a beautiful straight six.
Farhat Mahmood joined Munawwar and the pair put on 171 runs partnership for the second wicket. Their partnership was broken when Farhat got out after scoring useful 40 runs. Iqbal Bali joined Munawwar and both destroyed the AGE bowling attack by their glorious batting display and put on 158 runs unbroken partnership for the 3rd wicket and took their team’s total to 384 runs for the loss of two wickets at the end of their allotted 40 overs. Brilliant Munawwar was at his best as he registered a magnificent double century this time. It was really a treat to watch this young EPCA star batsman he was like a solid-rock in his defense, his foot work is just superb and that’s why he makes a difficult ball look so easy and he read the ball so well and quick that he plays correct shot and his collection of shots are wonderful to watch. This young genius has inspired lot of young batsmen in the Eastern Province.
In his innings of unbeaten 226 runs he executed 28 classic boundaries in almost every corner of the ground and a mighty six over mid-wicket. Iqbal Bali also batted well and scored an unbeaten half century which included 7 boundaries.
In reply, AGE also batted well and scored 344 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Rizwan scored 83 runs with the help of 9 boundaries. Faraz sparkled with 62 runs and Abul Hasan scored a fine unbeaten half century. Imran scored 32 runs and Zahid and Sikandar contributed 30 runs each. Munawwar bowled well and took 2 wickets for 56 runs and Majaz and Iqbal Bali also took two wickets.
In another match, YATA stun Alghamdi and beat them by 2 wkckets. Alghamdi batted first and scored 302 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. Tariq Tanweer scored a fine century 101 runs which included 10 boundaries and Riaz Saeed scored a fine unbeaten century 115 runs with the help of 9 hits to the fence and a beautiful six. Aftab scored 31 runs with four boundaries. Chasing a big score 302 Mazhar and Najeeb the openers of YATA laid a solid foundation and put on 50 runs in 5 overs when Mazhar lost his wicket caught by Riaz of the bowling of Tariq Mazhar scored 27 runs with 6 boundaries in just 13 balls. Shahzad joined Najeeb and the put on 85 runs partnership for the second wicket and take to score to 135 at the end of 17th over when shahzad got out after scoring very useful 45 runs which included 7 beautiful boundaries and the bowler was again Tariq. Najeeb was batting well but after the departure of Shahzad he lost his concentration and was caught by Riaz off the bowling of Khawar for 64 valuable runs in which he hit 9 classical boundaries. Soon YATA were in trouble as they lost 3 more quick wickets. Khawar struck again and got the wicket of Nadeem and Aftab got rid of Naeem and Saeed Amjad tried to consolidate the innings scored very well made 44 runs and took the score to 231 runs before he was unfortunately run out. YATA needed 40 runs in the last 3 overs. At this crucial stage of the match Sajjad conceded 20 runs in the 38th over as Naveed hit two towering sixes and a four and in the next over Tariq conceded 13 runs which seal the fate of the match. Naveed scored match-winning 40 runs in just 21 balls which included 4 boundaries and two sixes. In the last over YATA needed 7 runs to register a great victory which they did as Ian hit a boundary on the fifth ball off the bowling of Aftab and took his team to a wonderful victory, Ian remain unbeaten on 35 runs. Tariq was the most successful bowler of Alghamdi taking 3 wickets for 53 runs and Aftab and Khawar claimed two wickets each.
In another match, Saudi Pan Gulf crushed Imrah Tigers by 8 wickets. Imran Tigers batted first and scored 224 runs before they were all out. Anwar was top scorer with 72 runs which included 7 boundaries and Wasim scored fine 40 runs. Mahmood and Farhan bowled well and took 3 wickets each and Talal took 2 wickets for 33 runs.
