JEDDAH — The Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) routed the Riyadh Cricket Association (RCA) 2-0 in their inter-city encounter to commemorate the Saudi National Day at the WPCA Eskan Grounds here recently. Moazzam Shoukat hammered an unbeaten 87 and Imran Khan took 4 wickets to lift WPCA Green over RCA Patron-in-Chief-XI, while Qamar Abbas hit a century to guide WPCA White to victory over RCA. In the first match, RCA Patron-in-Chief-XI opted to bat first against WPCA Green. It lost wickets at regular intervals with only Irfan standing firm to make 61 in 37 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes. Irfan added 48 for the 7th wicket with Abdulsalaam to take the total to 193-9 after they were struggling at 113-6. Abrar added 29, Sami Arshad 34, Nadeem Babar 16 and Waheed 15. Imran Khan claimed 4 wickets for 29 as Qaiser Lateef grabbed 2-44, while Khurram Haneef claimed 1-29, Ijaz Sagheer 1-34 and Shoaib Ali 1-53. WPCA Green started the chase with Moazzam Shoukat who hammered an unbeaten innings of 87 in 54 balls (12 fours and 3 sixes). He added 84 in 39 balls with Khurram Karamat (38). Moazzam continued his strokeplay to take the team to 196-2 and an 8-wicket win. Skipper Abid Naseem, after a cautious start made 53 off 31 balls. Abrar took 1-35 and Rana Arsalan 1-48. The match was played under the watchful eyes of umpires Rahat Ali Choudhry and Akram. Shakeel Razzaq and Abdulwaheed were the scorers. The other match saw WPCA White elect bat first. It started in a cavalier fashion with Qamar Abbas hitting 8 sixes and 9 fours for his 112 off 45 balls. Faiq Habeeb remained unbeaten on 89 off 35 balls (12 fours and 3 sixes) to take the total to 298 for 6 in 20 overs. Faisal Mehmood added 21, Waheed 19 and skipper Abdullah Zahid 16. Zahid Din took 2-30, while Nadeem Bhatti claimed 1-43, Sami 1-54, Moazzam 1-38 and Nazim 1-36. RCA, chasing 15 runs per over, was reduced to 3-3 from where it could not recover. It was bundled out for 112 to lose the encounter by 186 runs. Adeel hit 28, Zahid Din 25, Nadeem Bhatti 25 and Tauseef 16. Abbas Al-Nadwi grabbed 2-10, Shahnawaz 2-24, Mazhar Abbasi 2-28, Aftab Malik 1-29, Waqas 1-20 and Abdullah Zahid 1-1. Waseeq Sherwani and Qaiser Mehmood were the umpires, while Ijaz Shah and Hafiz Asghar were the scorers. An awards distribution ceremony took place after the matches where trophies were given away to all the participating teams. Moazzam Shoukat of WPCA Green and Qamar Abbas of WPCA White picked up the Man-of-the-Match awards. WPCA Chairman Junaid Iskander thanked the RCA management, many of whom were present on the occasion, for the way they responded to the tour at such a short notice. Iskander and Nadeem Babar, RCA CEO, exchanged plaques at the end of the ceremony.
