Saqib stars in NMC’s comfortable victory

Team Interface captain Anil Adnani won the toss and chose to bowl in this Group A match.

United Bank Limited defeated Lanka Lions. — Supplied photo

Dubai — Saqib Ali struck a match-winning 65 to guide New Medical Centre (NMC) to a comfortable 69-run win over Team Interface in the 4th Interface Transworld Ramadan T20 Cricket Tournament at the Fairgrounds of the Dubai Men’s College. The month-long tournament is being organised by Dubai Cricket Council.

Team Interface captain Anil Adnani won the toss and chose to bowl in this Group A match. The move at first seemed to pay off when Hafiz Kaleem struck to remove both the openers. But, once Saqib Ali came to the crease it looked like the move to send NMC in to bat first, backfired. The No. 3 batsman was in elegant touch caressing the ball to all parts of the grounds, this despite wickets tumbling at the other end.

Mohammed Usman ran himself out just when he looked like giving Saqib good support. Then Salman Baber struck two quick wickets to break the backbone of the NMC team.

But Saqib soldiered on slamming a six and seven fours for his knock of 65 from 49 balls.

Asif Gafoor (19 off 20 balls) and Nisar Ahmad’s unbeaten 19 from 11 balls lifted NMC’s total to 145.

Interface got off to a bad start with Hafeez Kalim back in the pavilion without giving the scorers much work to do.

They never recovered from that and one by one the batsmen returned for early showers without putting up a fight.

Tailender Nashwan Nasir was the top scorer with 19 as Asif Gafoor (3/10), Nisar Ali Butt (3/18) and Raza Akif (2/19) wrecked the other batsmen to hand NMC a big win.

In a Group B tie, man of the match Umar Farooq (4 for 27), Mohammad Ayaz (3 for 12) and Zaheer Maqsood (2 for 22) helped United Bank Limited restrict Lanka Lions to 114.

UBL then chased down the target in 12.2 overs for the loss of only two wickets with Rameez Shehzad remaining unbeaten on 45 from 26 balls. His knock contained three sixes and two fours. The other batsman to remain not out was Amjad Ali who blasted 40, hitting two maximums and two fours from 29 balls.

Earlier Syed Maqsood gave them a good start scoring 21.