Afridi Club makes waves in domestic circuit

Afridi Cricket Club, a new team in domestic tournaments, is making waves. They lifted the third Umm Al Quwain Premier League Twenty20 title in style beating AGE Group team by 43 runs and have also reached the final of three more tournaments here. Afridi Club is not named after the hard-hitting Pakistan batsman Shahid Afridi though most of the players in the team are hard-hitters like Afridi. The team is owned by Afridi Star Transport LLC. Khan Muhammad Afridi, the managing director of the transport company, is the captain of the team and plays every match to inspire his players. Speaking to Gulf News, Afridi said: "We established our team only two years back. Last year we played in three Umm Al Quwain tournaments and won two. This year we have entered for four tournaments and has already won one final and is in the final of the remaining three." Afridi club has also been creating a stir in Sharjah Cricket Council tournaments too. In the Sharjah Council annual awards ceremony last week they were seen repeatedly receiving trophies "In Sharjah Council tournaments this season, we emerged winner in two tournaments and finished runner up in another. We are delighted with the progress we are making as a team," added Afridi. In the Twenty20 final in Umm Al Quwain, Afridi piled up 235 for 4 in 20 overs through their left-handed Saqlain Haider. He hit an unbeaten 106 studded with 16 boundaries. Incidentally, Haider is also their wicketkeeper and was backed by Mohammad Zahid, who hit 42 runs and Shaker Bangash (32). Chasing a run rate of 11.8 runs per over, AGE Group kept losing wickets regularly to the tight Afridi team's bowling attack. Naveed Salim stood out among the bowlers picking four wickets for 39 runs from his four overs while Mohammad Zahid and Mohammad Adnan chipped in with two wickets. Though Mohammad Azeem withstood the attack with a fighting 45 runs backed by Manal Siddiqui (40), they could never maintain the run rate and were bowled out in 16.5 overs. Brief scores:= Afridi CC bt AGE Group by 43 runs. Afridi CC 235 for 4 (Saqlain Haider 106 n.o, Mohammad Zahid 42, Shaker Bangash 32, Haji Irfan Akram 26 n.o, Sajjad Butt 2 for 51).AGE Group 192 in 16.5 overs (Mohammad Azeem 45, Manal Sidiqqui 40, Faraz Naeem 20, Naveed Salim 4 for 39, Mohammad Zahid 2 for 48, Mohammad Adnan 2 for 28) Man of the match: Saqlain Haider. From gulfnews.