JEDDAH: Crown Steel thrashed AOT Sonex by 94 runs in the final to claim the Prince Faisal Premier Cup here last Friday. Crown Steel scored 226 runs and then restricted AOT to 132 runs to score the huge victory in the tournament, which was sponsored by the Saudi Cricket Center and organized by the Western Province Cricket Association. The final was followed by a glittering awards distribution ceremony which was also attended by SCC and WPCA officials. Crown Steel won the toss and elected to bat. Its openers shafeeq and Hammad Saeed were back in the pavilion with only 37 on the board. Abid Ahmed, who made 37, tried to give some respectability to the total along with Hussain Bhatti, who top-scored with 72 (3 sixes and 3 fours). Babar later hit 25 and Fahad contributed 22 to get to 226 all out almost five overs before the stipulated overs. Imran Yusuf bowling his orthodox armers took 4-34 as Nasir claimed 2-21 and Qaiser 2-49. AOT Sonex chasing this moderate target was off to a miserable start losing Faisal to the third ball of the innings followed by Imtiyaz for 29 and Ilyas for 12 to stand at 46-3. Naeem Shah was sent back for 66 while Faiq Habib stood firm at the other end but with the score at 103-7 Faiq also returned back and with that died the hope for AOT Sonex's win. Hafiz Jafar added 15. AOT Sonex was all out for 132 in 25 overs as Man of the Final Aijaz Mitha grabbed 6-24 as Hammad Saeed scalped 2-23 and Zahir 2-21. The match was supervized by Dr. Sayed Ziauddin and Amjad. Naushad was the commentator. The fabulous prize distribution ceremony was later attended by SCC officials: Nadeem Nadwi, CEO; Qasim Naqwi and Sadiqul Islam; and Zulfikhar Ali Choudhry and Khurshid Zafar along with other WPCA officials. The Batsman of the Tournament award was picked up by Abdullah Essa of Zultec; Best Bowler Award was given to Khalid Iqbal of Zultec; Hafiz Jafar of AOT Sonex was adjudged the Best Wicketkeeper; Man of the Final was picked up by Aijaz Mitha; and the prestigious Player of the Tournament Award was bagged by Faiq Habib of AOT. All the individual players from both the winning and runner-up teams were given medals. The runner-up trophy was awarded to AOT Sonex skipper Nasir while the Prince Faisal Premier Cup was handed to Shafeeq of Crown Steel. __
