JEDDAH, 7 February 2003 — Al-Rabie Foods won the final by defeating Saudia City by 8 runs and became the champions of the 14th Kanoo Cup 2002-2003 Division-2.
The tournament was sponsored by Yousuf bin Ahmed Kanoo Group of Companies (Western Province) and organized by Jeddah Cricket League (JCL).
At Mahmoud Saeed ground, Al-Rabie won the toss and decided to bat first. The first wicket fell when the score was only 13 on the board. Wicketkeeper Afroz joined Rohan Silva and the pair added 75 valuable runs.
Afroz scored 24 and Rohan smashed 59 in 27 balls with the help of 2 sixes and 4 fours. The remaining players carried the score to 140 in the 17th over before being all out. Nasim Khan and Ghulam Qasim bowled well for 4 and 2 wickets respectively. In reply, Saudia City had a disastrous start when opener Ghulam Qasim was out lbw off Nafraz on the very first delivery.
Nasim Khan-38 and Nadim Ashraf-32 tried to repair the damage to some extent by adding 44 runs on the 2nd wickets stand. But after their departure the demoralized batsmen could not build up the innings. At the end Khalid Karim-15 and Mazher-4 showed some confidence but the quota of 18 overs had been completed and they could manage only 132 for the loss of 9 wickets, 8 runs short of victory.
Al-Rabie bowlers bowled outstandingly well giving only 7 runs extras. Adil captured 3, Suranga 2 and Nafraz and Faisal one wickets each. Syed Touqir Hussain Shah and Sadiqul Islam were the umpires for the final from JCL. (Syed M. Mussarat Khalil)
