Ali, Ahmed star in NMC’s comfortable win
sharjah — Abid Ali and Shahbaz Ahmed’s unbeaten half centuries ensured New Medical Centre defeated ECB Blues to register their second win in the Group B of the One Stop Tourism 43rd Bukhatir Premier League.
Needing 212 to win, NMC openers Fayyaz Ahmed (23) and Niresh Fernando (35) provided a 56-run partnership. A couple of wickets slowed down their progress before Shahbaz Ahmed and Abid Ali joined hands. The duo looked in a comfort zone as they batted all throughout the end to guide NMC to convincing seven-wicket victory in just 26 overs.
While Ahmed fired an unbeaten 51-ball 54 consisting of four boundaries and three sixes, Ali played an aggressive knock to score 83 from 65 deliveries with the help of 13 hits to the fence and two over it. They milked 138 runs for the fourth wicket.
For ECB Blues, H Bilal claimed three wickets.
Earlier winning the toss and opting to bat first, ECB Blues had a relatively steady start with opener Sagheer Afridi scoring 29. At 69 for four, ECB Blues needed a big knock to ensure they had a competitive total and that came from Prince Panu who along with A Rehman (23, 42b) shared an important 44 runs for the fifth wicket.
After Rehman was out, Prince Panu kept losing partners at the other end and was unlucky to miss out on a deserving century by just five runs. Prince Panu powered to a superb 95 from 82 balls consisting five boundaries and four sixes as ECB Blues were all out for 211 in 43.2 overs. For NMC, Ghulam Murtaza, Awais Aftab, Nisar Ahmed and Owais Sarfraz all claimed two wickets each.