YANBU, 20 February 2004 — In the Winter League matches of the Yanbu Cricket League, sponsored by Al-Yasrah Est., Jotun Paints defeated R.C. (A) by 49 runs in a key encounter.
Jotun won the toss and elected to bat. Jotun lost wickets at regular intervals against an accurate R.C. (A) attack with only Farooq (62 — 9 fours) and Jotun's captain Nasrullah (56 — 5 fours) as Jotun tallied 173 for seven. Omar, Amjad and Iqbal Patel took two wickets each while Yusuf bagged a wicket. In reply R.C. (A) began strongly with Zia and Omar in command. Omar was stumped for 42 (5 fours and 1 six) and Zia was also out for 42 (seven fours) after posting 93 in 12 overs.
But Farooq took 4 wickets, Muneer and Tariq two wickets each and Nasrullah a wicket then ran though R.C. (A) innings which faltered to 124 for nine in their allotted 20 overs.
Farooq of Jotun Paints was declared Man of the Match for scoring 62 runs and taking 4 wickets.
In another low scoring match played between ALMACON and Blue Star, ALMACON defeated Blue Star by 4 wickets. Blue Star won the toss and elected to bat.
Their reliable batsman Qasim scored 40 runs with the help of 4 fours but no other batsman showed patience to stay at the wicket.
Salman offered some resistance to score 26 late in the innings as Arif Gill took three wickets, while Tariq and Jawed took two wickets each as Blue Star were restricted to 120 in 17.4 overs.
In reply, ALMACON scored the required runs in just 17.4 overs. Asif scored 20 with the help of two fours and Arif Gill scored 59 with the help of 10 fours.
Gill was lucky to get as many as three lives as the sloppy Blue Star fielding let slip the match by dropping at least 6 easy catches. Even their ground fielding was below par on the day.
Abdul Rahman and Amoudi took two wickets each while Salman and Shoukatullah took one wicket each as ALMACON romped home.
