YANBU: The four semifinalists of the 2nd edition of the Yanbu Industrial College-YIC Students Cricket Tournament, which is sponsored by Saudi Cricket Center, were decided this week. Moayad Saeed Safer Al-Ghamdi played the lead role in getting his team Al-Aamid to the semifinals. He scored 54 in the first match against Maestro XI. In the second league encounter against Young Tigers XI, Moayad rose to the occasion with a swashbuckling 96 and later took 3 wickets. In the third match he impressed in the field taking a catch and getting two run-outs against the Taiba XI. Against Yanbu Challengers he scored 47 not out and took two wickets. For the second semifinalists Maestro XI, it was Musallam Suliman Al-Majnoni who made the difference. Announcing his arrival against Al-Aamid he hit 5 sixes in one over. Maestro XI lost the second match against Young Tigers as he scored just 18 runs and took two wickets. In a low scoring (83 runs) third match he made 35 and took two wickets against Taiba XI to guide his team to victory. Against Yanbu Challengers he made a quickfire 38 and took two catches. Motaz Wassel Al-Salhi was the player who stole the show for the third semifinalist Ittehad XI. He scored 86 with nine sixes against Jeddah Youngs in the first match and against Barcelona XI he rescued his team from the jaws of defeat. With three down without a run on board, Motaz scored an unbeaten 50 that included 9 fours and a six to take his team to a respectable score of 77 and a win. The fourth berth was taken by Barcelona XI which lost its first match against Ittehad XI despite its captain Abdullah Hasan Samman's first hat trick of the tournament. In the second match against Shabab XI the team was lucky to post a total of 93 thanks to 39 extras helping it win convincingly by 28 runs. This time Nasser Hassan Al-Dahri and Motaz Mohammed Ba Mahfouz came to the rescue of their team with Nasir taking 4 wickets and Motaz scoring 19 runs. Against Yanbu Blues Fahad Ali Mohammed Darboh and Abdulmajeed Ghurman Al-Amri scored 17 and 28 respectively. The team got a walk over in its last match against Jeddah Youngs. The semifinals will be played on Sunday at YACA Cricket ground pitching Al-Aamid XI against Maestro XI and Barcelona XI taking on Ittehad XI. __
