Salman Ali, Adnan Khan smash centuries in 17th National Seniors Cup

Pakistan News & Features Services

Textile Tigers, Apollo Sports, Turk Plast, Muslim Eagles, Amar Cables and Aftab Qarshi registered victories over their respective rivals in the Northern Zone matches of the 17th National Seniors Cup Cricket Tournament 2015, being organized by the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA). 

A record number of 109 teams from all over the country have entered the tournament being sponsored by IMI Omar (Pvt) Ltd and Arif Habib Group. 

In the matches held in Lahore, Textile Tigers defeated Shah Jamal Greens by 43 runs at the Stag Ground, Apollo Sports outwitted Kot Khwaja Saeed Cricket Club by five wickets at the Allama Iqbal Institute Ground, Amar Cables whipped Muridke Tigers by seven wickets at the Shah Faisal Ground, Aftab Qarshi overcame Chaudhary Sports by 18 runs at the Stag Ground and Turk Plast hammered Hajveri Sports by 75 runs while Muslim Eagles outplayed Bahawalpur Greens by nine wickets at the Sports Ground in Multan. 

Textile Tigers scored 219 for seven in the allotted 30 overs with Rizwan Nisar (63), Mujahid Jamshed (53) and Tauseef Mughal (44 not out) scoring substantially while Sohail Ahmed (3-45) and Alamgir Ahmed (2-32) bowled well. In reply Shah Jamal Greens was routed for 176 in 26.3 overs despite fine knocks from Mahmood Ahmed (46) and Salman Khalid (36). The innings was wrecked by Mujahid Jamshed (6-26). 

Batting first, Apollo Sports scored 272 for nine in 40 overs with Ayub Khan (52), Bilal Ali (40) and Salman Ahmed (35) being leading scorers. The wickets were shared between Bilal Aslam (3-50), Ali Raza (2-49) and Owais Tariq (2-24). Salman Ali scored 101 to steer Kot Khwaja Saeed CC to victory as they reached the target of 278 in 36.4 overs with five wickets in hand. Sherbaz Khan (55) and Owais Tariq (30 not out) also batted well. 

Muridke Tigers was bowled out for 146 in 29.4 overs by Amar Cables for whom Shakeel Malik returned figures of five for 30 after Wasim Fazil (32), Haider Ali (26) and Sarfaraz Hussain (25) laid foundation for a bigger total. Afzal Shah (53 not out), Jamshed Sulaiman (43) and Saleem Malik (36 not out) scored briskly as Amar Cables raced to the target of 147 in 23.3 overs losing only three wickets, all of them captured by Mohsin Javed. 

Rasheed Akhtar (49), Abdul Waheed (43) and Moshin Aftab Qarshi (42) enabled Aftab Qarshi to reach a total of 196 for nine in 30 overs with Naveed Sufi (3-17) and Fayyaz Bhatti (2-30) being the pick of the bowlers. In reply, Chaudhary Sports was all out for 181 in 29.2 overs with Abid Shaikh (41) being the top scorer. The main wicket-takers were Tariq Hussain (3-24), Abdul Ghafoor (3-42) and Moshin Aftab Qarshi (2-29). 

Javed Hafeez took five wickets for 23 runs to power Turk Plast to a convincing victory over Hajveri Sports, who was restricted to 159 for nine in 30 overs despite Saleem Malik’s 48.Earlier Turk Plast amassed 234 for four in 30 overs with major contributions coming from Abdul waheed (93), Dastagir Ahmed (67) and Hammad Maqbool (44). 

Adnan Khan’s unbeaten 118 powered Muslim Eagles to crushing nine-wicket win over Bahawalpur Greens, who had been contained to 197 for six in 25 overs despite fine knocks from Fawad Anwar (67), Khurshid Ahmed (43) and Mohammad Javed (39). Muslim Eagles reached the target in 22.2 overs with Iftikhar Afzal (38 not out) and Nasir Khan (34) also contributing their bit.