JEDDAH — Excellent batting displays by Ather, Irfan and Shahzad made the WPCA Hyundai Naghi Premier Division matches a delight to watch here recently. Dopco Stars beat Asian Advance Plastic Factory (APF) by two wickets. Asian Advance Plastic Factory (APF), batting first, posted 204-3 thanks to Abdullah Essa for his unbeaten 64 off 53 balls studded with a six and 4 fours. He added 51 with Anis Malik (39). Later skipper Nadeem Amin remained unbeaten on 46 off 25 balls. Waqas Ausaf scored 33 as the two added 77 off 40 balls to get to 204. Wahid took 2-34, while Hassan claimed 1-37. Dopco Stars, in reply, lost 2 wickets early, but Maqsood hit 34 and Shoaib Ali 26 to put on 52 for the third wicket. They slumped to 118-5, requiring 87 off 42 balls. Shahzad Rasheed then changed the complexion of the game when he hit 67 not out in 27 balls with the help of three sixes and eight fours to take the team tally to 207-8. Abdulqayyum grabbed 2-38, Anis Malik 2-22, while Adalat, Waqas Ausaf, Arshad and Yusuf claimed a wicket each. In the second encounter, Al-Saudi thrashed Crown Steel by 117 runs. Al-Saudi, opting to bat first, lost two early wickets. But Irfan (99 off 44 balls) and Mazhar Abbasi (58 off 36 balls) added 112 runs for the third wicket. Abbasi then added 81 runs with Javed Iqbal, who remained unbeaten on 41. Murtuza grabbed 2-20, Aijaz 1-36 and Waqas 1-53. Crown Steel, chasing the huge target lost wickets at regular intervals to be bundled out for 130 as Imran top-scored with 26, while Qaiser added 21 and Waqas 19. Amjad grabbed 4-30, Adil Sami 2-13, Sajid 2-25, Mazhar 1-18 and Imran 1-13. In the last match Usman Gems, batting first, scored 160-9 with Hashim Khan making 67 in 48 balls, while Zahid added 20. Afroze took 4-26, Wajid 2-31, Aleem 1-16 and Ayaz 1-17. Deccan Knights found Abdulquddoose Ather in awesome touch as he single-handedly slammed an unbeaten 117 off 43 balls (20 fours and 3 sixes) to get to the required target in just 67 balls. Sohail made 17. Azher and Zahed picked up a wicket each.
