Eastern Blues wins ‘Hidaya Foundation Jubail cup-2013’

Jubail May 6: First ever cricket tournament of Hidaya Foundation Jubail unit came to an end with Eastern Blues winning ‘Hidaya Foundation Jubail cup-2013’ by defeating SAB Middle East.

Winning the toss SAB decided to bat first in the 8 overs final match but their batsmen failed to score freely in front of tight bowling with well supported fielding by Easter Blue players. SAB batsmen able to score just 23 runs in first 7 overs, but some big hits in last over got them 20 more runs and finished with 43 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in stipulated 8 overs. Ali scored 18 and Usman scored 9 runs for SAB while Imthiyaz and Ashfak took 2 wickets each for Eastern Blues while Nazmaan took 1 wicket.

Defending moderate target of 44 runs SAB Middle East fought back with Monish struck twice in his first over. Easter Blue lost their third wicket when the score was just 2. But Iqbal and Ashfak stabilized the innings by adding 28 runs for the 4th wicket. Iqbal remained unbeaten with 20 runs while Ashfak scored 17. At the end Eastern Blues achieved the target quiet comfortably by losing 5 wickets with 2 overs to spare.

Earlier in the first semi final SAB Middle East defeated Lanka United by 7 wickets. Batting first Lanka United scored 52 runs in allotted 10 overs. For Lanka Badar scored 15 runs while Shamsher made 14. For SAB Abid took 3 wickets. In reply SAB achieved the target in just 6 ove’s by losing only 3 wickets. Abid scored 25 runs while Shoiab scored 15.

In nail biting second semi final Eastern Blues beat Amaco by 3 runs. Batting first Eastern Blues scored 57 runs in 8 overs. Qayyum scored 15 runs and Imthiyaz scored 10. For Amaco Rameez took 2 wickets. While chasing the target at one stage Amaco needed just 22 off 18 deliveries with 7 wickets were in hand. But some accurate bowling from Eastern Blue bowlers stopped Amaco batsmen in achieving the target. Amaco were 54/4 at the end of 8th over and fell 3 runs short.

Iqbal from Eastern Blue awarded as Man of the Final Match and Man of the Series goes to Khasif of SAB Middle East. Best Batsman is awarded to Ali of SAB while Imthiyaz from Eastern Blue declared as Best bowler of the tournament.

Hidaya Foundation Jubail unit president Ismail Real Tech, Zaheer from Al Muzain, Farooq Portpolio president of JF Jubail, Salman MD of Saleh Ayed Balharith Est. , Abdul Hameed from Real Tech, Sunder Das from Kannada Sangha, Abdul Maksood from Amaco Cricket Club and Asif Amaco advisor of Hidaya Foundation Jubail were guests for the closing ceremony. Asif briefed the activities of Hidaya Foundation and informed that whatever funds collected from this event will go to betterment of education sector in back home.

Total 24 teams participated in this flood lit tournament which held for 3 weeks at beautiful Dywidag ground. President Ismail congratulated organizing committee led by Imran Hertz and his team for their wonderful efforts to successfully complete this event.