JEDDAH: Following the successful organization last month of an Under-14 event, the Western Province Cricket Association is now arranging an Under-15 Inter-School Cricket Tournament. The forthcoming tournament, sponsored by Johnson Control, is scheduled to start in the last week of March with eight Jeddah schools confirming their participation. A meeting was held last week at a local restaurant with all the participating school's representatives present on the occasion. Schools which have confirmed their participation are: Pakistan International School Jeddah–English Section, Hala International School, Sri Lankan International School, International Indian School Jeddah, Bangladesh International School Jeddah, Corniche International School, DPS Al-Falah International School and Pakistan International School Jeddah-Aziziyah. The teams have been divided into two groups of four teams each with initial group matches to be held on a round-robin league basis for this 16-over-a-side series. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the last four. The matches will take place Thursday afternoon at WPCA Eskan grounds. Meanwhile in the WPCA Premier 40-over League AOT Sonex is leading the standings table with 6 points. Zultec is second also on 6 points, followed by My Care Hala in the third spot with 3 wins from 4 matches. IDB is fourth followed by Mehmood Saeed, Crown Steel, Usman Gems and lastly Dopco Stars. In the Afternoon Tournament Crown Blue is undefeated so far. It is closely followed by Nestle Milo, Al-Safri, Safa Al-Bawadi, Zultrack, Ealaf Engr. and Jotun Paints. In the Morning League Usman Gems Blue, Hala School, Johnson Control and ATS have tasted victories in their respective encounters. Usman Gems Blue beat Jeddah Lords by 77 runs. Batting first Usman Gems Blue piled up 162-5. Sadiq made 68 and Ashraf 50. Jeddah Lords in response was bowled out for 85 as Kashif took 3-24, Noman 3-25 and Aman 2. In the other match Hala International School beat Mercedes Benz by ahuge margin of 129 runs. Hala racked up 238-6 in 18 overs with Omar plundered the rival bowlers to score 170 runs off 62 balls (11 fours and 9 sixes). Shahnawaz scored 35 and Owais 25. Mercedes Benz in reply was restricted to 109 as Owais scalped four wickets for 11 runs, Raja took 3-16 and Omar grabbed 2-15. Another encounter saw Johnson Control easily beat Budget. Budget put on 143-5 through Shukur making 57 and Ali 31. Qaiser Amin took 2-17 for Johnson. Johnson responded with Nasir smashing 78 off 47 balls and Khubab making 32 to help their side score 147
