In an interesting battle that had all the trappings of a championship match Riyadh Conference Palace brought down erstwhile undefeated Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers to win the 6th Annual Riyadh Inter-Hotels Cricket Tournament last Friday.

It was a tense Friday afternoon during the do-or-die situation for both teams more so because their respective supporters from top management were present: Matthias Paans, Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers’ Director of Rooms who came with his wife, and from Riyadh Conference Palace Abdullah Al Otaibi, director of Human Resources; Ibrahim Al Zahrani, Maintenance and Transport manager and Mohamed Hareez, Food & Beverage manager.

This tournament for the benefit of children of Unicef is hosted by Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers through the GM, Gerald Chevasson, and supported by all general managers of the 11 participating leading hotels in Riyadh.

Riyadh Conference Palace won the toss and elected to field first with Sheraton Riyadh setting a target of 157 runs RCP to win the match. Sajjad Ali Awan scored 42 runs including 4 sixes while the team captain Furqan Gillani added 21 runs with 3 sixes.

Riyadh Conference Palace Sahib Rahman took 2 wickets for 25 runs in 4 overs while Usman Mehmoud Hussein also took 2 wickets for 23 runs in 4 overs.

On the side of Riyadh Conference Palace, it managed to cross the target on 159 in 16 overs. In an exciting ending in the last two balls the score was 156 and Sheraton bowler Furqan Gillani never surrendered a run in the first ball and the second ball tied the score at 157 but was given a wide for an extra ball for RCP to win the championship round. Sheraton Riyadh bowler’s Khurram Saeed took 4 wickets for 36 runs in his 4 overs and Mohsin Awam 1 wicket for 15 runs in in overs.

The awarding ceremony followed the championship match. Second runner-Up trophy was awarded to Riyadh InterContinental Hotel, the first runner-Up to Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers, Man with Maximum Catches and Maximum Fours was Mohammed Javed of InterContinental Hotel, Man with Maximum Sixes was Ishfaq Awan of Sheraton Riyadh Hotel, the Best Bowler was Usman Mehmoud Hussain of Riyadh Conference Palace, Sahib Rahman was the Best Batsman, and Mohamed Rafik Noorruddin Man of the Match.

The committee would like to extend its thanks and appreciation to all participating hotels, the official umpires headed by Wajid Ali and Sumair with the official scorer Ishfaq Awan. Also, thanks to the utility men behind the preparation of the ground headed by Furqan Gillani, Nawaz Akhter, Aqeel Afzal, Muhamad Shahzad, Izhar Ali, and Shaik Moin Basha.