JEDDAH: Crown Blue thrashed Jotun Paints and Safa Al-Bawadi defeated Nestle Milo in the semifinals of the WPCA Afternoon League. The Morning Tournament final will be between Budget and Crown White. In the 40-over Premier League Phase II AOT Sonex went down to Dopco and My Care Hala had the last laugh against IDB. In the first semifinal, Safa Al-Bawadi taking the strike first tallied 208-9 as Yassir smashed 75 in 36 balls and Umair scored 68 in 42 balls. They added 102 runs for the third wicket. Rayyan took 4-38 and Asim 2-57. Nestle Milo chasing more than 10.4 runs per over was restricted to 192-9. Faiyyaz faced 32 balls to compile 60 and Jabbar made 37. For Safa Al-Bawadi, Shakeel scalped 3-36, Iqbal 3-44 and Yassir 2-34. In the other semis, Crown Blue racked up 175-6 in 18 overs against Jotun Paints with Nadeem making 57 off 28 balls and Danish remaining unbeaten on 42. Anwar hit 28. Akram and Shahnawaz took 2 wickets each. Jotun Paints was bundled out for 98 as Man of the Match Anwar took 4-14 and Imran got 3-18. Salim Butt resisted with 35. Al-Safri, batting first against Pak XI, piled up 196-6 through Rehan 61, Shahid 35 not out, Shoaib 32 and Manjeet 30. In reply, Pak XI was bundled out for 101 as Sarfaraz recorded a fantastic hat trick in his third over to take 5-15, Waleed claimed 2-12 and Khurram 2-31. Faisal smashed 59 in 33 balls, Faiq Habib stroked 59, Naeem Shah contributed 42 and Imtiyaz made 41 to post a challenging 298-8 for AOT Sonex against Dopco Stars. Maqsood took 3-54 and Khurram 2-46. In reply, Dopco stars had a flying start with both the openers, Maqsood blasting 91 in just 43 balls and Nadeem making 45. They produced 136 for the first wicket to lay a foundation for an emphatic win. Later Shahbaz's 64, Usman's unbeaten on 49 and Khurram's 30 took Dopco to 302-4 in 36.3 overs. Faiq scalped 2-56. In the other match, My Care Hala opting to bat first had a disastrous start against IDB as Ijaz bowled devastatingly to reduce it to 63-5 but a teen sensation Faheem coming at # 7 took control to blast a scintillating century (100) and along with Azeem (88 off 80 balls), added 173 runs for the sixth wicket to rack up 287-7. Ijaz who had opponents tottering at one stage took 5-45 in his 8 overs. IDB, in response, lost wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for 222. Ijaz who again showed his fine allround ability with the bat to plunder 77 runs in 59 balls and Yassir made 35. Fahim took 2-26, Haider 2-33 and Abdul Qayyum 2
