By Syed Mussarat Khalil JEDDAH — Powered by an explosive and unbeaten 88 by opener Shamsuddin E.P., Saudi Arabia halted the unbeaten run of Qatar by thrashing it by 8 wickets in the final and bagged the ACC T-20 Western Region Championship in Muscat Thursday. The final was played at Oman Cricket Turf 1 ground under floodlights. Saudi Arabia won the toss and decided to field. Qatar, rated as the favorite with its unbeaten streak in the tournament, was virtually shaken in the final. It lost 3 wickets cheaply. However, middle order batsmen Mohammad Tanvir (27 runs) and Taimoor Sajjad came to team's rescue and added 50 runs for the fourth wicket. Taimoor made a solid 68 off 38 balls with 3 sixes and 5 fours. He also added 59 valuable runs for the fifth wicket with Noman Sarwar (33 not out). Mohammad Nadeem got 2 wickets for 33 runs. Qatar scored 157 for the loss of 6 wickets at the end of the allotted 20 overs. In reply, Saudi Arabia needed 7.85 runs per over to hit the winning target. The champion achieved it in 15.3 overs at an average of 10.52 runs per over for the loss of 2 wickets. Opener Shamsuddin was dropped in the first slip in the very first over and he made them to pay for it. Shamsuddin and Faisal unleashed amazing strokes during their second wicket partnership of 77 runs in 7.5 overs after opener Sajid Imran Cheema fell for 16. An aggressive Shamsuddin sent the Qataris on a leather hunt. He blasted 88 not out off 48 balls with 6 sixes and 8 fours. Faisal scored 36 off 15 with 3 sixes and 4 fours. Malik Mohammad Naeem remained not out on 17. Shamsuddin was adjudged the Man of the Final. Kanak Khimi, chairman of Oman Cricket, was the chief guest and guest of honor Saleem Elyas, president of Bahrain Cricket, distributed the prizes during the award ceremony in the presence of senior Oman Cricket management including Secretary Madhu Jesrani, Duleep Mendis CDO and Iqbal Ariwala, CAO, and OC board members.
