JEDDAH, 28 May 2004 — Sadafco beat Saudia City by 80 runs, Hero Rangers beat Talha Optics by 5 wickets and SGB Baroom crushed UMA by 4 wickets while Urdu News beat Young Athletes by a huge margin of 262 runs in the first round matches of under 19 clubs tournament which is supported and sponsored by the Arab News for the fourth consecutive year and organized by the Jeddah Cricket League (JCL) under the youth development plan.
Urdu News, batting first, set an imposing target of 314 to win in the 20 allotted overs against Young Athletes. Urdu News' record 313 for 2 was largely due to Naveed Abbasi's unbeaten 127 (20x 4, 4x6) and Hussein's unbeaten 116 (15x4, 1x6) and a 36-run contribution from Mr. Extras. Hasnath 13 and Abeed 15 were the batsmen who fell as Daniel and Shaz took one wicket each. Young Athletes were then bundled out for 51 in 7.2 overs as Aijaz bagged 4 for 18, Hussein 3 for and Raheel 2 for 15 as Shaz (14) and Hamza (13) reached double figures.
UMA Colts elected to bat against SGB Baroom and tallied 134 for 9.
Umar Anwar 23, Umar Riaz 15, Qasim 15, Naser (13), Waseem (13) and Junaid (13) along with 19 extras helped UMA score 134 for 9 in 20 overs. Osman took 3 wickets, Imran 2 wickets while Shoeb Ali, Ali Qasim and Hassan took one wicket each for SGB. In reply the Baroom Colts reached their target in just 17 overs with the help of Fazail's unbeaten 38, Extras 30, Usman Ali 19, Shoeb Ali 14, Farhan 15 and Hassan 13.
Sadafco, batting first, made 178 for 5 in 20 overs. Babar fell cheaply but Raheel 40 and Akeel 56 not out and Babar Jr. 16 helped their side put up 178 against Saudia City Colts, who were bundle out for a meager 98. Usman 19, Zain 33, Khalid 25 and Extras 17 were the major contributors.
Talha Optics elected to bat first and scored 178 for 8. Opener Sufyan struck a timely 48 runs for his team with Usman 19, Ameen 16, Salman 13, Yasin 13, Mohair (10), Afnan (10) and Assad (10) standing out. There were 32 extras while Zain took 3 wickets, Tabrez and Noman took 2 wickets each for Hero Rangers.
Hero Rangers' opener Waqas played freely for 36 and then Burhan took charge with 30 valuable runs. Zeeshan scored an unbeaten 38 as they won in the 19th over. Annas and Mohair took 2 wickets each for Talha Optics.
