Pakistan School & College reach semis
Kuwait U-18 school cricket
KUWAIT CITY, Dec 2: In an exciting match, Pakistan School & College, Salmiya overpowered the talented bunch of Future Star cricket academy team to reach the semi-final of the ongoing Gulf Four U-18 cricket tournament organized by Kuwait Cricket Under the auspices of ACC development program. Pakistan School & College captain Abdul Jabbar called the coin correctly and decided to bowl first. Devastating fast bowling by Nidal accounted for both the Future star openers but the talented Zakharia Liaqat Ali and dependable Future star captain Ali Zaheer slowly build up the total to 79 when Ali Zaheer’s sudden rush of blood saw him deceived by a beauty of the delivery from Abdul Jabbar and wicket keeper did the rest. Zakharia’s innings was a stamp of a class as he on drove and pulled with authority to score a solid 49 runs with 2 sixes and 4 hits to the fence. Mustaq played a polishing innings of 20 to take Future Star total to 112 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs. Nidal 2-13 & Abdul Wahab 2-21 were the pick of Pakistan School & College bowling.
Stocky Abdul Wahab and hard hitting opener Qasim opened the innings for Pakistan School & College and in the second over, Qassim was well caught at deep third man for 1. Thereafter, Abdul Jabbar & Abdul Wahab combined to play quality cricket as the duo excelled in their running between the wickets and punched with awesome power to post a century partnership to notch up victory in the 15th over. Abdul Wahab clouted two huge sixes & 3 fours to remain unbeaten with a gritty 49 runs while the stylish Abdul Jabbar played an elegant knock of 44 runs with 5 boundaries. Mustaq & Zakharia took a wicket each for Future Stars academy.
Mohammed Tahir Khan, Director of Future Star Cricket Academy presented the Player of the match trophy to Abdul Wahab of Pakistan School & College for his all round performance with bat & ball. While the match was supervised by Riaz Choudhry and Imran Mustafa.
In the second match Star studded Friends XI yet again displayed their talents to score a comfortable victory over Cricket Coaching club and advanced to the next round. Winning the toss & batting first CCC were soon in trouble as Friends XI fast bowler Salman ran through the top order. Allen with 13 runs & Ilham with 14 runs were the only batsmen to show some resistance as CCC were skittle out for 80 runs. Right arm spinner Ahmed was the pick of the Friends XI bowlers as he spun the ball viciously to bag 4 wickets for 14 runs. Salman bowled well to take 3 for 21 runs.
CCC did well to capture the wicket of Zahid & Nabeel cheaply but Husnain ( 17 runs) and yet another swash buckling innings of 41 runs in 13 balls by Mudassar enabled Friends XI to notch up victory in the 8th over. Mudassar played a cameo innings as he struck 3 huge sixes & three fours to the delight of the spectators and led the team for an emphatic victory. Clive, Andrew & Chris took a wicket each for CCC. Abdul Qayoum and Naimatullah Nadeem were umpires.
Iqbal Rajpurkar a senior cricketer of Kuwait handed over player of the Match award to Ahmed of Friends XI for his excellent bowling.
The hosts had eaten into their target to the tune of 40 runs without loss by the close of play with openers David Warner (29) and Ed Cowan (nine) having survived a sometimes nervous last hour.
After the first two Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide ended in draws, South Africa only needed a third in Ricky Ponting’s last Test to ensure they remained the world’s number one side.
They will now be expected to do considerably better than that and become the first team since the West Indies in the 1980s and early 1990s to win consecutive series in Australia.
De Villiers said the Proteas were taking nothing for granted, however.
“We know we have a lot of hard work to do tomorrow, it’s a good wicket. If the Test match goes the full length, they will come close,” he told reporters.
“We are not arrogant in any way whatsoever. It won’t be easy. We know the Australian batsmen are dangerous players and won’t be giving it away.”
Amla’s brilliant innings was one for the purists, while de Villiers started slowly before accelerating after he reached his fifty to bludgeon the Australian bowlers with every shot in the book.
Picking up where he left off on Saturday when he helped the tourists plunder 206 runs in the extended third session, Amla got the single he needed to reach his 18th Test century from the third delivery of the day.
Peppering his innings with some sublime cover drives for a good few of his 21 boundaries, Amla’s comfort at the crease had echoes of his unbeaten 311 against England at the Oval in July.
Australia’s pace unit, acclaimed after ending South Africa’s first innings for 225, toiled in the sunshine looking for a breakthrough but their best efforts only slowed the flow of runs.
It took a brilliant catch from Mitchell Johnson off his own bowling to dislodge Amla shortly before tea as the 29-year-old was approaching a double century after 350 minutes and 221 balls.
Johnson (4-110) found a little bit of extra pep with the new kookaburra and when the South African drove the ball back at him, he snatched it out of the air for a second superb caught and bowled of the innings.
Dean Elgar was despatched lbw by Johnson four balls later for a pair of ducks on his debut but the day already belonged to South Africa’s batsmen.
De Villiers had moved reasonably cautiously to his 50, with the exception of one huge six off spinner Nathan Lyon that hit the second deck of the stand at long on.
He upped the pace with a string of quickfire boundaries to reach 89, then graduated to his 14th Test century in stunning style with three successive reverse sweeps for four, again off Lyon.
Faf du Plessis (27) and Robbie Peterson, who failed to score, came and went before Johnson’s fellow leftarmer Mitchell Starc (6-154) finally removed de Villiers caught behind.
The 28-year-old was clearly furious with himself for having fallen short of the double century after his innings of 169 off 184 balls with 21 fours and a trio of sixes.
Ponting had earlier bowled one last Test match over at the cost of three runs to huge applause from the 13,000 crowd at the WACA, but the chance of finishing his career with a victory was surely gone.