RIYADH: NAB and Riyadh Blues were crowned Super League and Premier League champions when they clinched the Power Zone Twenty20 Cup cricket title, sponsored by Power Zone and organized by the Riyadh Cricket League at the RCL complex here.

In the finals, unbeaten NAB, who are having a great season, eased past Mehran Cricket Club by 41 runs while in the Premier Division Riyadh Blues worked hard for their 17-run win over Kashmir Press.

The highlights of the eight-week long tourney were performances by NAB’s Aseer and Usman Butt , Mehran’s Asad Butt and Riyadh Blues’ Shakeel .

In the Super League final, NAB put on board 147 runs after they won the toss and elected to bat first. Opener Imran and Hashim were restricted by the Mehran bowlers while No.3 Jamil was out without scoring. Later Usman Butt and Aseer took responsibility and helped the team to a decent score. Usman Butt made 44 runs while Aseer played a magnificent inning of 67 runs with the help of 7 boundaries and 2 sixes. Ayyaz and Ibrahim bowled well and claimed 3 wickets each. Assad took 2 and Raja and Fakher bagged 1 each.

In reply Mehran failed to achieve their target and were bowled out for 106 runs. Assad Butt provided a good opening start and made 44 runs. However, no other batsman gave him support and wickets fell at regular intervals. Imran Khan, Usman Butt and Imran Junior took 2 wickets.

Man-of-the-Match: Usman Butt.

In the Premier Division final, Riyadh Blues won the toss and elected to bat first. They made 166 runs from the stipulated overs. Shakeel provided a solid opening start and scored 48 runs. Fayyaz supported him with a valuable 25 runs. In the middle order Himayath scored 19 and Saif 23 to help Riyadh Blues to reach a reasonable total. Kashif and Qasim of Kashmir Press bowled well and claimed 3 wickets each while Nabil took 2 and Nazar 1.

In reply Kashmir Press were bowled out for 149 runs. Kashif was the only batsman who played with confidence and made 20 runs, rest failed to counter the rival bowlers and caved in tamely. Himayath and Farhan bowled well and took 3 wickets each while Shakeel got 2 and Jawwad took 1.

Man-of-the-Match: Shakeel