JEDDAH – Crown Steel scraped through against Asian Advance Plastic Factory by one wicket on the last ball whereas My Care & Hala downed Dopco Stars with ease to get into the final of the WPCA Summer Premier League. My Care Hala, which opted to bat first, lost wickets at regular intervals but Kashif Shafeeq stayed on to produce multiple partnerships with Waheed Nisar (32), Waqas Ausaf (21) and Rahat Ali (16). Later Khurram Karamat hammered 47 in 19 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes to cross the 200 mark. Kashif Shafeeq was unlucky to miss a ton as he was out on 89 off 50 balls with 10 fours and 2 sixes. However, it helped the team to a mammoth 217-5 in 20 overs. For Dopco Stars Adnan took 2-35 and one wicket each was claimed by Shahbaz, Ajmal Khan and Asim. Dopco Stars was off to a disastrous start as both Shoaib Ali and Usman Ali fell on the first two balls of the innings by Hussain Bhatti to make Dopco Stars tottering at two for none. Nadeem, who made 24, and skipper Shahbaz, who stroked 39 off 25, tried to repair the damage but the task was too big. Ajmal Khan (24) and Asim (26) were the other contributors to take the tally to 167 all out. Hussain Bhatti, who started the downfall of Dopco, took 3-39, Mohammed Tayyab 2-14 and Waheed 2-23. Asian Plastic Factory, which chose to bat first against mighty Crown Steel, had a sound start with both skipper Nadeem Amin (29) and Imran Ghani, who topscored with 70 off 39 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes, adding 94 in 9 overs. But once the skipper was dismissed the wickets started to tumble and the team was restricted to 181-7 with only Nadeem making 28. Abuhuraira took 2-36 and one wicket each went to Aijaz and Zubaid. There were also three run-outs. In reply, Crown Steel lost three wickets quickly but Abid Naseem, a consistent performer with the bat, found an able ally in Babar Hussain. Abid Naseem made 45 in 28 balls and Babar Hussain 43 off 31 balls. Later when the team required 37 runs in the last 18 balls Abuhuraira plundered 24 in 11 deliveries to taste victory on the last ball of the match by getting to 183-9.
