Mazroi XI thrashed Al-Saudi XI by 6 wickets in the final to clinch the WPCA Morning Tournament crown at Eskan ground here. Faizan was adjudged the Man of the Final for his match-winning 36 and one wicket. Al-Saudi XI, which won the toss, had a flying start by making 52 runs in just 5 overs. Openers Abbas and Afzal scored at will against some wayward bowling by Al-Mazroi pacers. Khalil Dawood then produced a breakthrough by removing a well set Abbas (24) which paved the way for a collapse as Farook sent back 3 batsmen – Afzal, who made solid 42, Nazeer and Nadeem in quick succession – to send Al-Saudi tottering at 94 for 4. Faizan then made it 98-5 and 114-6. Amidst the procession of the batsmen Omar produced an unbeaten 32 in 24 balls to tally a moderate total of 143-7 in 18 overs. Farook took 3-31. Sufiyan, Khalil Dawood and Faizan accounted for the rest. Al-Mazroi chasing this moderate target lost both the openers early but Faisal stood his ground with intelligent batting to graft 46 with authority. He was supported by Faizan who produced a determined innings of unbeaten 36. Zubair blasted a quickfire 20 in 9 balls to reach 144-4 with 5 balls to spare and emerge champion. Nadeem grabbed 2-22. In the other matches, MCC downed Mehmood Saeed by 8 wickets as prolific Aftab Khan blasted an unbeaten 139 off 62 balls for his third century of the season. Asif Khan hit an unbeaten 32 to amass 213-2 in mere 101 balls. Earlier, Mehmood Saeed had set 211-6, thanks to Umar's 77 in 35 balls, Wajahat's quickfire 39 in 17 balls and Niyaz's unbeaten 35. Khalid and Usman shared four wickets. Zultrack set 147-7 against Crown Blues as Adnan made 39 not out and Rashid 22. Rashid scalped 2-22 and Nadeem 2-29. In reply, Crown Blues was stranded at 145-3 to lose by a slender margin of 2 runs despite skipper Murtuza scoring 54 not out. Marine Services tallied 147-7 with contributions from Asghar 28, Iqbal 27 and Yaseen 26. Hassan Malik grabbed 3-22, Anjum 2-9 and Akram 2-29. MyCare Hala Green reached 148-4 in 85 balls as Hassan Malik with fine all round performance produced 48 off 20 balls, Emad 36 and Yasser 25. Naseer took 3-37 for Mariners. Arshad Chohan and Azher Butt did the umpiring and Dr. Sayed Ziauddin gave a running commentery.
