Explosive batting by Athar (146 off 52 balls) and intelligent spin bowling by Saeed Amoudi (4-38) helped Hijaz-XI rout Otex Cricket Club by 146 runs and Sigma Paints Osfan-XI beat Saudi German Hospital by 7 wickets in the second week matches of the JCA Premier Division which is sponsored by Kanoo Group and organized by Jeddah Cricket Association (JCA). After skipper Talha Qulani won the toss elected bat first, Hijaz-XI made 271-5 in the allotted 20 overs against Otex Cricket Club. Hard hitting Ayaz, who was promoted to open the innings, and Wahaj did their job well. Ayaz made a useful 34 while Wahaj scored 28 off 15 balls. In came Athar and opened his account with a boundary. He was so aggressive and hit 151 off just 52 balls with boundaries and sixes raining all over. He was caught at mid wicket off Amjad. Later Sadath 25 and Afroz 15 helped their team reach 271-5. Amjad claimed 2-47, Asif 1-25, Jawed 1-45 and Akram 1-51. Otex, in reply, slumped to 125 all out as right-arm slow spinner Saeed Amoudi had 4-38 and left-arm spinner Faheem 3-20. Wahaj took 2-21. Shahnawaz, star batsman of Otex, proved his mettle as he hit 67 off 41 balls. He did not enough support from his teammates except Osman Jani 16 and Amjad 10. This was Hijaz-XI's 16th straight win so far in JCA events. In the other match, Saudi German Hospital Cricket Club made 121-7 in the allotted 18 overs against Sigma Paints Osfan through Mumtaz 32, Jojo 20 not out, Sibtul Hassan 19, Waseem 16 and Taqi 13. Mudasir had 2-24 while Majid Bhatti, Arshad and Zahid had one wicket each. In reply, Sigma Paints reached 123-3 in 11.5 overs to win the match by 7 wickets. Arshad struck a match-winning innings of 58 while Mudasir hit an unbeaten 13. Metho, Jojo and Taqi took one wicket each. __
