JEDDAH: AOT Sonex set up Prince Faisal Premier cup final against Crown Steel after beating Zultec and My Care Hala respectively in the tournament sponsored by the Saudi Cricket Center. The first semifinal saw Crown Steel hand My Care Hala an eight-run thrashing. Crown Steel batting first plundered 356 runs in 40 overs and then restricted its rival to 348-9 in the allotted overs. Hammad Saeed hit 121 runs off 69 balls. His innings was studded with 12 fours and 6 sixes as he added 181 runs for the second wicket with Abid Shaikh, who compiled 84 off 59 balls. Imran Nasir later added 34 runs and Zaheer remained unbeaten on 27. Azeem took 2-39, Yassir 2-51, Mohsin Mirza and Arshad had identical figures of 2-67 as Waqas secured one wicket. My Care Hala accepted the challenge, but lost Kashif and Khurram early. One down Nadeem Amin compiled 60 runs adding 120 for the third wicket with Rahat Choudhry, who crafted 63. My Care Hala in the hunt till the last over had Waqas hammering a quick-fire 50 as Azeem scored 42 and Maqsood contributed 41 off 27 balls to get close to the target, but fell short by eight runs to finish at 348-9. Hammad Saeed scalped 3-57, Abu Huraira 2-73 as Hussain Bhatti, Zaheer, Aijaz and Shafeeq bagged one each. In the other semifinal Zultec chose to bat first piling up 319 all out. AOT Sonex reached the target for the loss of eight wickets in the 40th over. Abdullah Essa fell for 94 off 86 balls while Ajmal Khan added 68 off 29 deliveries. Javed Iqbal made 36 and Jawwad 27. Zeeshan took 3-45, Kashif Mughal 2-49, Faiq 2-54 as Nasir Iqbal and Qaiser grabbed a wicket each. AOT Sonex in response lost two early wickets but Faiq Habeeb, scoring at will, scored 156. Ilyas hit 86, Imran 33 and Zeeshan remained unbeaten on 27. Ace spinner Khalid Iqbal grabbed 4-67 as skipper Anis Malik bagged 2-54 and Usman 2
