(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Spurred with an all-round show from captain Inam Ul Haq, Qatar got off to a flying start at the ICC World Cricket League Asia Division 1, when they pummelled Kuwait by 150 runs in their opening match at Royal Chiang Mai Golf Club in Chiang Mai, Thailand, yesterday.
The title-contenders were equally impressive both with the bat and ball as they thrashed neighbouring rivals to secure full points in their first match.
Batting first, Qatar got a dream start when Inam and Qalandar Khan combined to make 128 runs for the first wicket. In-form Qalandar, who struck a century against Bhutan in the warm-up game last week, looked flawless in his 72 off 83, before being trapped leg before by Imran Ali. He smashed 10 fours and a couple of sixes in his innings. The skipper made 62 from 102 balls including five fours and a six.
But it was Zaheer Ibrahim's swashbuckling knock of 57 from only 19 deliveries which helped Qatar reached a formidable total of 295-5 from stipulated 50 overs. Ibrahim hit five towering sixes apart from four boundaries.
Kuwait, in reply, lost early wicket when opening batsman Usman Waheed was dismissed by Nouman Sarawar with just one run on the board. After that, they never looked comfortable and lost wickets at short intervals to bow out for just 145 in 40.4 overs, handing a huge victory to Qatar.
Mohammad Nadeem was outstanding for Qatar, grabbing four wickets for just 10 runs from 8.4 overs. Iqbal Ahmed and captain Inam took two wickets each for 20 and 27 runs respectively. Sarwar and (1-33) and Tamoor Sajjad (1-31) were the other wicket-takers.
Aamir Javed (52) was the top scorer from the losing side while Mohammad Irfan (29) and Haroon Shahid (24) were the other notable scorers.
'A good start is always been important and we have got that, the Qatar Cricket Association (QCA) Operation Manager who is accompanying the team in Thailand told The Peninsula.
'It was an all-round show from the entire team especially from the captain which is a huge positive for us for the rest of our campaign.
Qatar will play their second match against Bhutan today and Manzoor said the players were confident against the South Asian side.
'We have defeated them in the warm-up. But this is the main event and we will have to give a good show against them in order to claim winning points.
In other match, Saudi Arabia trounced China by 390 runs to record a massive victory.
After amassing, 418 runs, the Saudis confined China to 28-9 for the huge win.
Hosts Thailand and Bahrain are other teams taking part in the event which will conclude on May 1. The title winning team will directly get promotion to Division 5.
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