Dirab League emerge as champion of RCA Champions League

RIYADH: Dirab League emerged champion of the RCA Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament organized by the Riyadh Cricket Association and Cricket Saudi International. In the final, Dirab League beat Al Majma’ah League by 6 wickets.
Dirab League won the toss and elected to field first. Al Majma’ah League openers Abdul Waheed (54) and Ibrar-ul- Haq (24) gave their team a flying start. But after the loss of the opening pair, Dirab bowlers kept up the pressure and restricted the Al-Majma’ah to 188 for 7 from the stipulated overs. Abdul Qadir remained unbeaten on 47 while Awais added 26. Dirab League captain’s strategy of bowling all 20 overs by the spinners proved successful. Adnan and Abdul Mannan picked 2 wickets each while Iftikhar, Irshad and Saqib bagged one wicket each.
Dirab League chased aggressively and reached the target after 16.3 overs. Waseem Jutt played an outstanding innings of 108 off 50 balls while Irshad Mubashir hit crucial 35. Ibrar, Dawood, Waheed and Hamza took the four wickets that fell.
Man-of-the-Final: Waseem Jutt.
Earlier in the first semifinals, Dirab League beat Huraymala League by 6 wickets. Dirab League won the toss and elected to field first. Huraymala League lost their first wicket in the third over and then continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. Contributions from Tila Yousafzayi 38, Asif Zaki 38, Obaidullah 28 and Waseem Jabbar 22 made sure that Huraymala reach a respectable total of 181 for 9 in the stipulated 20 overs. Iftikhar Ali, Saqib Saleem and Irshad Mubashir picked 2 wickets each while Yassir and Adnan shared two wickets.
Dirab League also had a disastrous start with a wicket on the very first ball of their innings. However, a 104-run second wicket partnership between Waseem Jutt (70) and Irshad Mubashir (52) took Dirab out of trouble. After the dismissal of Waseem Jutt and Irshad Mubashir, Yassir Ahmed’s 41 off 21 balls helped Dirab League reach the winning target comfortably after 18.3 overs. Zeeshan Mansha picked 2 wickets while Yassir Ghafoor and Imran Younous got 1 wicket each.
Man-of-the-Match: Waseem Jutt.
In the second semis, Al Majma’ah League beat Al Kharj League by 8 wickets. Al Kharj League elected to bat first after they won the toss and posted a formidable total of 228 for 9. Malik Fahad scored 40, Muzaffar Majeed 37, Bilal Wani 32, Nadeem Babar 31 and Kamran Akram 28 were the main contributors. Ibrar-ul-Haq and Abdulaziz picked 2 wickets each. Dawood, Awais and Saif chipped in with a wicket each.
Al Majma’ah openers started aggressively hitting boundaries to all corners of the ground. Abdul Waheed played a master class innings of 132 off 57 balls. He was well supported by Ibrar-ul-Haq who scored quickfire 56 off 17 balls. Hamza Abbasi propped up the innings with 25 off 22 balls. Muzaffar Majeed and Ayaz got one wicket each.
Man-of-the-Match: Abdul Waheed