Al Muzain faces Pak Crescent ‘A’ in YACA final

YANBU: Pak Crescent ‘A’ trounced Cristal by 40 runs while Al Muzain scored a thrilling eight-run win over Jotun Paints to enter the final of the YACA MoneyGram cricket tournament here.
Pak Crescent batted first and put on board 162 for 6. Waseem scored an unbeaten 39 runs with the help of 3 sixes and 2 fours while Sarfaraz got 31. Fazal grabbed 3 for 23.
Cristal in response could not sustain the pressure and were restricted to 122 for 9. Nasim staged a lone battle and stroked 50 off 38 balls with 4 sixes and a four. Sarfaraz grabbed 3 for 22 while Raja Fahad had 2 for 15.
In the other semis, Al Muzain opted to bat first and compiled 186 for 6. Shoaib scored 36 runs while Naveed got a brisk 40 runs off 17 deliveries with 3 sixes and 4 fours. Later Sohail propped up the innings and compiled 57 off 26 balls which put his team in a fighting position. Mohammed Afzal, skipper Jotun Paints, bowled well to take 3 for 26.
In reply, Jotun Paints lost two early wickets and at one stage were 24 for 2. However, skipper Mohammed Afzal steadied the rocking boat and scored a fighting 48 runs, which included 6 fours and a six.His partner Iftikhar contributed 45. M. Farooq coming lower down tried his best with a swash buckling 44 off 19 balls, which was not good enough as they fell short by eight runs. Shaoib had 3 for 29.
Earlier in the quarters, Cristal scored a thrilling two-run win over G T Warriors. Cristal were all out for 116 runs. Nasim (27) and Shoaib (26) were the main contributors. Thayyoob grabbed 4 for 12. Saeed and Shafwan claimed 2 each. G T Warriors started well in their run chase, but in the latter part of the innings they could not face the hostile bowling by Nasim who claimed 4 for 15, which restricted their opponents to 114 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs.