Web Posted on Mon. 20th Feb. 2006
Kuwait , A magnificent unbeaten 154 by Asghar Bajwa paved way for Bahrain to post a mammoth total of 401 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in the ongoing ACC Middle East Cup 2006 tournament sponsored by Nissan Al Babtain and the event co sponsored by Domino’s Pizza MK Electric, National Bank of Kuwait and Al Essa Medical & Scientific Equipment Co.
Winning the toss and electing to bat first, Bahrain openers Asharaf Baig & Fahd Sadiq started slowly to add 40 runs when Asharaf Baig was caught by Abdul Majid of Mansoor Zaveri for 20 runs. Left hander Abdul Waheed joined Fahd and the two consolidated the Bahrain innings with some quickly struck boundaries & cheeky singles. At his individual score of 36, Fahd was declared Lbw of Abdul Majid which brought Asghar Bajwa to the crease. Finding his touch in no time, Asghar created inroads into the Iranian bowling attack and struck some handsome looking shots. A solid front foot player, Asghar dashed down the track to lift the spinners and any short pitched deliveries were punched to the boundary with awesome power.. Abdul Waheed, meanwhile was caught by Yahya Sheiki for a quick fire 62 runs which had seven hits to the fence.
Asghar Bajwa soon reached his well deserved century with a beautiful square cut of Mansoor Zaveri. A splendid knock of 46 runs by Aseemul Haque & a breezy 21 runs by Qamar Saeed in the middle order helped Bahrain cross 350 runs but it was an entertaining 37 runs by Yakoob with two fours & 3 huge sixes which enabled Bahrain to post the highest total of the tournament so far. Asfaraf Bajwa remained unbeaten with 154 runs. Sher Mohammed 2/40, Mansoor Zaveri 2/65,Attan 1/52 were the successful bowlers for Iran.
Facing a huge total, Iranian openers Sher Mohammed & Abdul Ghaffar played positive cricket and in the very second over, Sher Mohammed rocked back to pull Fahd Sadiq to the square leg fence and ondrove Yasser Sadiq in a masterly fashion. Introduction of spinners resulted in applying the brakes of Iranian run rate as it went down steeply. Sher Mohd departed first with 19 runs and Abdul Ghaffar was caught by Aseem of Tahir for a well made 32 runs. Nariman impressed a lot with his solid defence and attractive stroke play but Asharaf had him caught by Tahir for 24 runs. Thereafter, none of the Iranian batsmen could withstand the Baharaini attack & the innings folded to 151 runs. Fahd Sadiq was the leading wicket taker for Bahrain whereas Tahir, Asharaf & Qamar Saeed shared two wickets each.
Asghar Bajwa was declared man of the match for his blistering knock of 154 runs and the prize was presented to him by Mr. Iqbal Sikander, ACC Development officer.