Mohammed Shakeel Sarfaraz RIYADH — The Week 3 matches of the Independence Day Cup 2015, organized by Mumtaz Sports Academy here, saw Rockstarz, Lustre and Newstar CC almost confirm their place in the knockout stages with emphatic wins in their respective league matches. Five more berths for the knockout stage are on the offer and teams are stressing out harder to make the grade. In Group A vs. Group B matches, Rockstarz routed Chennai Stars by 160 runs. Man of the Match Noufal scored a quick 64 in 28 balls. United CC took the second position with a NRR of 3.93 when it chased down 135 set by Team Oshos in less than 9 overs. FFCC stood third with its comfortable win over Al-Mousim Champs. Team Concord slipped to fourth position after suffering a shocking loss to Super-XI, which successfully chased down a modest total of 104 in the 15th over to open its account. Hyderabad Leopards took the last position in the group with 4 points when they defeated Victorious CC by 2 wickets. Super-XI CC leads Group B with 2 points, followed by Al-Mousim Champs, also 2 points. Other teams are still to register their first win in the first edition of Independence Day Cup 2015. In Group C vs. Group D encounters, Lustre CC defeated Chennai-XI by 124 runs. Ahmed Tamimi was awarded the Man of the Match award for his quick-fire 50 down the order and 3 wickets. Lustre leads the table with three wins and a NRR of 7.85. Nawabs-XI registered its second victory by beating Classic-XI by 37 runs. It stays second with a NRR of 1.06. Newstar CC maintained its lead in Group D with another clean performance over Deccan Warriors. It overcame the challenge with 4 wickets in hand. It has perfect 6 points from 3 matches with a NRR of 2.85. Riyadh Fighters are making this event a tournament to remember when they outclassed Champs-XI by successfully chasing a total of 94 in less than 8 overs. They took the second position with 4 points and a NRR of 4.36. Imran Mani of Newstar CC so far leads the best batsman line-up with 295 runs including 2 centuries, followed by Danish of FFCC (221 runs from 3 innings). Ashfaq Ahmed (United CC), Ahmed Shafiq and Vishnu (Lustre CC) complete the top 5 batsmen list. In bowling, Rajeev (Rockstarz) leads the table with 8 wickets with an average of 7.38, followed by Ibrahim (Newstar CC) and Qadeer (Victorious) with 8 wickets each and an average of 14.13 and 14.50, respectively. Ahmed Shafiq (Lustre) and Zaki (Hyderabad Leopards) make the top 5 with 7 wickets each. For complete list of statistics of the tournament, visit myCricLife.com.
