JEDDAH — Al-Saudi-XI and Zultrack came out on top to book their berths in the Hyundai Mohammed Yusuf Naghi Summer Afternoon Tournament semifinals at the Western Province Cricket Association grounds here recently. Zultrack beat My Care Hala Green by 58 runs. Put into bat, Zultrack started briskly with Usman Gulab slamming 10 fours and a six to compile 64. His partner Umer Mukhtar hit 40 in 16 balls to put on 86 for the first wicket. Bilal Khan remained unbeaten on 69 in 47 balls and Khadim added 18 to take the total to 219-4. Sulaiman took 1-37, Qazzafi 1-31 and Babar 1-17. My Care Hala Green, chasing 11 runs per over, lost wickets at regular intervals and could score only 161-9. Qazzafi top-scored with 46 off 31 balls, while Noor remained unbeaten on 29 and Babar added 21. Subail took 3-10, while Yaseen, Imran, Usman and Bilal Khan took a wicket each. The second match saw Al-Saudi-XI beat Contraco by 6 wickets. Contraco, opting to bat first, started well with the openers putting on 109 for the first wicket in 65 balls. Khurram scored 66 (4 sixes and 7 fours), while Nisar added 49 (4 fours). But once the opening pair was separated Contraco fell from 146-2 to 162 all out. Nazeer Farooqui had 2-18, Adil took 2-32, Mazhar 1-28 and Sajid 1-37. Al-Saudi, in reply, found Zeeshan Soherwardy in good touch. He hit 41 off 22 balls and Mazhar Abbasi racked up 56 in 35 balls (4 fours and 3 sixes) to take the total to 88. Sajid remained unbeaten on 20 and Nazeer Farooqui added a quick-fire 25 not out off 8 balls to seal the victory. Salaam claimed 2-32 and Usman 2-35. The remaining two quarterfinals — UCC vs. Al-Safree and AMI Juffali vs. Nestle Milo — will be played Friday.
