Crown Steel and Zultec won their opening Level I matches in the first week of action in Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA). The WPCA has divided its 28 teams into three groups - Level I (40 over matches), Level II (T20) and Level III (T20). The first week of action saw two matches at each level. In the first of the Level I matches played under WPCA Crown Steel beat SGB by 132 runs. Batting first Crown Steel scored 310 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the allotted quota of 40 overs. Crown Steel skipper Shafeeq Ahmed played a captain's innings by making 77 runs. Hammad Saeed with 88 and Abid Naseem with 48 added useful runs to the Steel total. Waseeq Shervani and Sohail Shah bagged two wickets each for SGB. In reply SGB was bundled out on 178 runs. After losing its first wicket in the second over SGB could not play confidently and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Only Manjeet (48 runs), Khalid Butt (35) and Qazafi (29) were the noteable batsmen among the losing side. Ijaz Sagheer picked up three wickets for 38 runs while Hammad Saeed, Shafeeq and Qayyum bagged two wickets each for Crown Steel. In the second Level I match Zultec beat Mehmood Saeed by 26 runs. Rahat Choudhry scored 152 runs to help Zultec put on 377 runs in 40 overs. Arif scored 74 runs and Javed 30. Amjad and Jawad Sagheer picked up two wickets each for Mehmood Saeed. Mehmood Saeed started well as its openers Irfan and Kamran made 138 runs in 15 overs. But once their wickets fell no one except Niaz (67 runs) came good. Javed took six wickets for 72 runs for Zultec. In the Level II T20 matches Al-Ammas and Fine Sweet scored wins over Zam Zam Hotel and Red Sea Jotun Paint, respectively. The first match saw Al-Ammas beat Zam Zam Hotel by 46 runs. Al-Ammas scored 209 runs batting first. Rumesh (71), Rizwan (65) and Umer (23) were its main scorers. Tahir, Qasim and Amir shared a wicket each for Zam Zam Hotel. Zam Zam Hotel was all out for 163 runs. Tahir (51), Amir (49) runs and Waqas (20) were among its main scorers. Sameera bagged three wickets, Rizwan two and Muhammad one for Al-Ammas. The other match saw Fine Sweet beat experienced Red Sea Jotun Paint team by 7 wickets. Jotun batted first and scored 120 runs for 8 wickets. Mazhar put on 40 runs while Shabbir added 23 runs and Shafeeq chipped in with 21. Hameed bagged three wickets, while Qasim picked up two for Fine Sweet. Fine Sweet reached the target for the loss of only three wickets. Salman scored 61 runs, Qasim 16 and Imran 13 for a winning cause. Basit and Altaf from Red Sea Jotun took one wicket each.In the Level III T20 matches Al-Saudi X1 beat Patel Eleven by 34 runs. Al-Saudi batted first and scored 219 runs with 125 coming off the bat of Naveed. Nadeem Saad scored 42 runs and Zeeshan 20 runs. Mushtaq was the only successful bowler for Patel X1 who took 2-44. Patel X1 put on a brave fight but it could score only 189 runs. Altaf scored 69 runs, Irfan 63 runs and Abdul 14 runs. In second Level III match Net Pat beat Safra by one run. Safra need one run off the last two balls but its batsman was out on last ball and Net pat won the match by one run.
