JEDDAH: Abdul Lateef Jamil Company Division-II matches kicked off here last week with a big bang. The opening day's matches saw Deccan Knights beat ALJ by a record 10 wickets; Saliheen Cricket Club scored an eight-wicket win over Butt Sports Club; Young Athletes edged Reel & Rom by two runs; while Al-Khulais Cricket Club won the match against ACC by six wickets. The event is sponsored by the Abdul Lateef Jamil Company (ALJ) and organized by Jeddah Cricket Association. In the first match ALJ, batting first, scored 156-7 in the allotted 18 overs against the Deccan Knights Cricket Club. Vijay, in good form recently, again played an unbeaten knock of 56 runs off 31 balls. Tanvir hit 38, skipper Naeemullah 29 and Hamza 11 for ALJ. Jawad bagged two wickets for 35 runs, Ayaz 1-27, Akram 1-35 and Ghouse 1-25. In reply Deccan Knights achieved its target (157) without losing any wicket thereby winning the match by 10 wickets. Openers Mohammad Umar Suwadi (88 — with 15 boundaries) and Akram (53 six fours anda six) were a handful for the ALJ bowlers. The second match saw Butt Sports lose to Saliheen Cricket Club. Batting first Butt scored 167-4. Tariq Siddiqui hit 54, while Junaid Butt hit 40, Buktyar remained not out on 22, Abdur Rehman hit 18 and Omar 14. Irfan, Nadeem, Abid and Amjad picked up a wicket each for Saliheen. In reply Saliheen reached the target 169 for the loss of two wickets. Amjad Siddiqui remained unbeaten on 73, while Haseeb added 34, Irfan 21 and Nadeem was not out on 13. Tariq was the only successful bowler with figures of 2-35. In the third match Young Athletes scored 156-7 in its allotted 18 overs against Reel & Rom. Iftekhar, who came in to bat at No. 6, was the highest scorer with 36 runs. Others who contributed runs were Walliuddin 25, Zakir 23, Shaad Mohammad Khan 16, Abdul Wahid 14 and Abdullah 12. Wajid, Munir Ahmed and Khurram bagged two wickets each, while medium pacer Imran Khan claimed one for Reel & Rom. In reply the Reel & Rom narrowly missed the target as it could reach only 154-7 in its allotted overs. Opener Wajid gave his team a confident start. He scored 56 runs, but the top order failed as Zubair went for a duck, Jameel for 2, Munir Ahmed 8, Imran Khan 12 and Khurram 10. Franky David was the only other batsman to put on some resistance with 15. Iftekhar and Safdar took two wickets each, while Abdul Wahid, Zakir and Noor bagged a wicket each for Young Athletes. The last match of the day saw ACC take the strike first against Al Khulais-XI. It was all out for 133. Jaya scored 21, Tabrez 13, Sohail 12, Abid 10 and Feroz 9. Muzammil picked up three wickets, Irfan and Saud took two wickets each, while Abdul Aziz and Khaleel had one wicket each for Al Khulais-XI. In reply Khulais-XI reached its target of 134 runs for the loss of four wickets in 11 overs. Khaleel was the highest scorer with 36, Toufeeq remained not out on 21, Basharath and Tanveer scored 16 each and Irfan made 14. Abid took 4
