Saudi XI stunned mighty Crown Steel in the final by 34 runs to bag the 1st Dopco WPCA Premier Cup here at the Eskan grounds. The Premier Championship of the WPCA was sponsored by Dopco Company. Mazhar Abbasi was adjudged the Man of the Final for his crafty 89 and one wicket. In the Afternoon League, Al-Safree XI racked up a huge 244 against Jotun Paints to qualify for the quarterfinals, Khalid Butt recorded his second hat trick and second consecutive century for IDBG against Juffali AMI, while My Care Hala Green, China Southern and Fuchs Alhamrani won their respective matches. In the Dopco Cup final, Al-Saudi XI opted to bat and started well. But it lost wickets at regular intervals to be 149-4 at the half-way mark. Skipper Nadeem Saad once again played a gem of an innings to compile his third half century (62 in 40 balls) and Afzal made 28. After the break, Sarfaraz returned for a well-made 40 to make it 162-5. Then Mazher Abbasi took up with a classy 89 in 50 balls and Abdullah Aamir hit 38. They produced 121 runs for the sixth wicket. Al-Saudi XI finally tallied 329. Fuad Ali added 17 and Nazeer 18. Hammad Saeed took 3-39, Aijaz 3-48 as Abu Huraira, Shoaib and Hussain took one wicket each. Crown Steel, in reply, raced to 99 in just 60 balls through skipper Shafeeq blasting 43 in 16 balls and Shoaib Ali hitting 35. It was sitting pretty on 178-4 at the break. After the break, a well set Abid Naseem ran himself out for 69, followed by Babar (43) and Fahad Sulaiman (30). The Steelmen crumbled and their resistance ended at 295. Fuad took 3-70, Afzal 2-43 while Mazher, Nadeem Saad, Nadeem Javed and Sarfaraz got one wicket each. Chief guest Bander Al-Reuban, Managing Director of Dopco Company, presided over the final ceremony. Khalid Butt of IDB belted a ton and claimed a hat trick, his second this season, to defeat Juffali AMI. IDB batted first to rack up 182-3 through Khalid Butt, who hit an unbeaten 102, and Ashfaq (57 not out). Juffali AMI was restricted to 163-9 despite Emad's 83 and Habeeb's 23. Butt took 3-16. Hala Academy Blue was all out for 191, thanks to Saim Sherwani (64) and Abdulaleem (58). They added 115 for the 6th wicket. Adnan, Tauseef and Adalat took two wickets each. China Southern Airlines won (195-7) with three balls to spare as it blasted 25 runs in the last nine deliveries. Qasim Butt hammered 70 in 36 balls and Awais made 38. Ramazan and Tanvir claimed two wickets each. Al-Safree racked up 244-6 in 20 overs through Zahid 64, Saeed 48, Muneeb 45, Manjeet 34 and Aftab Maklik 32. Imran grabbed 2-44. Jotun Paints, in reply, was bundled out for 78 against some lethal bowling by Mubashir who grabbed 4-28, Waqas 2-5 and Abdulrauf 2-15. Saif resisted with 27. My Care Green, batting first against Elaf Advance, mustered 198-7 as Yasir plundered an unbeaten 110 and Farhad hit 24. Irfan, Usman and Ejaz Butt took two wickets each. Elaf Advance lost by 16 runs as it was stranded at 182. Siddique scored 60 whereas Atta scalped 4-30 and Azhar 2-39. Fuchs Alhamrani defeated Pak Kashmir. __
