Doha: Qatar secured third straight victory at the ICC World Twenty20 Asia Region Qualifier A after defeating Saudi Arabia by four wickets at Kuwait City yesterday.
The victory consolidated Qatar’s second spot in the standing led by an unbeaten UAE side. The top three teams in the event will qualify for the next stage.
Qatar, after electing to field, displayed a disciplined bowling performance to restrict Saudi Arabia to 136-6 with Mohammaed Nadeem (2-37) and Noman Sarwar (2-21) being their top performers with the ball. Qatar vice captain Tamoor Sajjad (1-29), Awais Malik (1-17) and Iqbal Hussain (1-14) were the other wicket-takers.
Shahbaz Rasheed who scored 36 from 32 deliveries was the top batsman from Saudi Arabia.
In reply, Qatar achieved the target in 18.5 overs, thanks to identical knocks of 35 from 27 balls each from Tamoor and Zaheer Ibrahim. Khurram Shahzad also played a useful innings for 19 and remained unbeaten. Tamoor was named Man-of-the-Match.
Qatar suffered loss to UAE in their first match, before the Inam-ul-Haq led team registered wins over hosts Kuwait and Maldives. The Al Anabi will play their last match against Bahrain tomorrow.
Saudi Arabia are third while Kuwait occupy fourth place in the standing followed by Bahrain and Maldives respectively.
