Haider dominates match to bring team to Abu Dhabi semis

Abu Dhabi: William Hare Abu Dhabi Gymkhana won a high scoring match with Bin Jamal Cars to advance to the semifinals of the Abu Dhabi Duty Free division two cricket tournament here at the council grounds.

Opener Irfan Haider hit a blistering 69-ball 142 not out for his team knock off the winning runs, 270 for one, with 13 deliveries to spare, in reply to Bin Jamal Cars 265 for two in the allotted 25 overs.

Haider dominated a couple of partnerships, putting on 148 for the opening wicket with Mehroz Khan (27), and 122 without being separated with Haroon Iftikhar, who stroked 89 from 45 deliveries.

Last four

Bin Jamal Cars was helped by two centuries from opener Nazar Hussain (120 not out) and one-drop Shahbaz Iqbal (120). The pair also shared a superb 191 for the second wicket.

Joining them in the last four were Nissan Al Masaood, Atlas Telecom and Avis, all winning their games convincingly.

Scores in brief:

William Hare Abu Dhabi Gymkhana bt Bin Jamal Cars by 9 wickets.
Bin Jamal Cars 265 for 2 in 25 overs (Nazar Hussain 120 not out, Shahbaz Iqbal 120).
Abu Dhabi Gymkhana 270 for 1 in 22.5 overs (Irfan Haider 142 not out, Mehroz Khan 27, Haroon Iftikhar 89 not out).

Nissan Al Masaood bt Darwish bin Ahmad by 126 runs.
Nissan Al Masaood 222 for 7 in 25 overs (Zaheer Baig 78, Ashwaq Raza 33, Khurram Hameed 47 not out, Habib ur Rehman 2-39, Anup Updesh 3-32). Darwish bin Ahmad 96 all out in 21.5 overs (Kamran Mirza 3-22, Sikander Mirza 4-13).

Atlas Telecom bt UAE Exchange Centre by 73 runs.
Atlas Telecom 249 for 2 in 25 overs (Ibrahim Ali 34, Zubair Nadeem 81, Sameer Khan 55, Ghafoor Butt 27, Sanjeeva Dias 2-28, Imtiaz Rasool 2-46).
UAE Exchange Centre 176 all out in 22.5 overs (Asim Ijaz 58, Atif Ijaz 43, Abbas Ahmad 2-38, Waqas Alwi 2-26, Imran Khan 2-35, Riyaz Khan 3-40).

Avis bt Al Marjan Herbs by 8 wickets.
Al Marjan Herbs 75 all out in 16 overs (Tousif Shah 28, Ravi Verma 2-15).
Avis 76 for 2 in 14.3 overs (Nithin Gopalkrishnan 33 not out).