Mehmood Saeed emerged WPCA Afternoon champion after defeating AMI Juffali by eight runs here recently. In other games Hala Academy Blue, Fuchs Alhamrani, China Southern Airlines, desert Lions and Contraco won against their respective rivals in the WPCA Afternoon Phase II tournament. The final match saw Mehmood Saeed opt for batting against AMI Juffali. It lost early wickets to sit 55-5 in the sixth over with only Umar contributing 28. But things turned in Mehmood Saeed's favor when man-of-the-match Farooq took the reigns of the match in his hands and started building the innings. He put on 74 runs for the sixth wicket with Niyaz (25 not out). Farooq scored 56m while Amjad hit 18 to take the team's tally to 177-9 off 20 overs. Najam took 3-37, Sofiyan 2-28, Asif 2-31 and Rafiq 2-43. AMI Juffali started the run chase in style when openers Emad and Habeeb making 41 and 46 respectively. They put up 108 runs for the first wicket in 12.3 overs. Juffali required another 70 runs off 45 balls. Sofiyan made 22, Imran 18 and Rafiq Gujjar 16 to get to 169-5 in its quota of overs, thereby falling short by eight runs. Faheem took 2-28, Farooq 1-31 and Wajahat 1-27 for the champion. In the other matches Hala Academy Blue piled up 155-7 against Pak Mecca-XI as Saim Sherwani made 50, Amjad 27 and Usman Malik 21. Majed took 3-34 and Umair 2-20. Pak Mecca in reply could only get to 134-7 to lose by 21 runs. Amir made 41 and Umair 26 as Shafeeq scalped 4-36. In another match Jotun Paints batted first against Fuchs Alhamrani to get to 137 with only Imran making an unbeaten 60 off 34 balls. Khuban grabbed 4-23, Irfan 3-18 and Mukhtar 2-21. Fuchs Alhamrani reached the target of 138 for the loss of two wickets off 106 balls as Rashed hit an unbeaten 57 and Mukhtar remained not out on 41. China Southern Airlines racked up 204-7 against My Care Hala Green thanks to its first wicket partnership of 119 between Awais (58) and Faheem (53) and an Abdullah quickfire of 31 off nine balls. Aftab had 3-21, Anjum 2-22 and Rizwan 2-45. My Care Hala Green could only get to 178-9 with Yasir making 57 off 27 balls and Azhar 47. Tauseef claimed 3-32 and Abdullah 2-28. Desert Lions won by a solitary run against Marine Services after putting up 163-5. Marine Services could only score 162-8. MCC put up 141 against Contraco, which was home with 145-5.
