Cricket: QND Celebration & Bringing South Asian Sub-continent Close
The Organizing Committee for Associated Activities for the Qatar National Day Celebrations conducted a Six Nation Cricket Tournament on the Qatar National Day at the Cricket Stadium West End Park. The matches were played between Expatriates teams of Qatar-India - Pakistan - Sri Lanka – Nepal and Bangladesh.
The morning begin with the playing of Qatar National Anthem and all the teams carrying Qatar National Flag took a lap of the ground . As the gates opened there were nearly 3000 spectators waiting to get inside the stadium exactly at 7am Star Cricketer and Pakistan’s finest legendary batsmen Zaheer Abbas entered the ground with Azim Abbas to a thunderous applause by the spectators . The day was perfect with chilled winds blowing and sun was just coming out as all the teams were lined up to greet and meet the Star Cricketer Zaheer Abbas who was specially flown from Pakistan as the Guest of Honor. Habibul Nabi started briefing with live commentary from the middle of the park he first started by welcoming Zaheer Abbas and later asked him to speak some motivational words for the teams and also gave a few batting tip's to youngsters.
Six nation cricket festival match started with quarter finals, First match was played between India and Nepal, India gave a strong target of 129, to Nepal who performed very well and could only reach up to 79 runs and India won this match comfortably.
Second quarter final was played between Qatar & Sri Lanka . The Qatar team was a combined team of many nationalities and winning the toss elected to bat giving a target of 129 to Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka could not achieve in 15 over’s and Qatar qualified for semifinals.
First semi final was played between Bangladesh and India, India won the toss and elected to bat and gave a target of 128 runs to Bangladesh, Bangladesh started slowly and loosing wicket at frequent intervals could only managed 85 in 15 over’s, India qualified for finals.
Second Semifinal was played between Pakistan and Qatar, Qatar controlled Pakistan up to 8 over’s and allow Pakistan to score 56 runs, but last five over’s blasted 74 runs and gave a target of 133 runs, Qatar lost their star batsman who score 74 with Sri Lanka and could not recover. Pakistan won the match.
Final was a big one between India & Pakistan with big excitement in the stadium . Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat and started the innings with lusty hitting and taking full advantage of first 5 power play over’s and scoring 76 runs, they did not stop here and continued the hitting in the same manner and finally scoring 190 runs in 15 over’s. India also started aggressively and hit first 2 balls for boundary and scoring 50 runs in the power play overs, but due to some good bowling by Pakistani bowlers India was restricted to 146 in 15 overs and Pakistan lifted the Qatar National Day Cricket trophy for the second year in a row
There was a Raffled Draw conducted by Shiraz , Nafis ,Patra,Syed Ali every 15 overs and prizes of return air ticket by Nepal Airlines & Fahad Travels,TV, Mobiles, Gift Vouchers from FFC were given worth thousands of Riyals. The entire atmosphere in the Park was an IPL type with a professional DJ playing Music and the IPL hooter the crowds danced to Qatari , Indian, Pakistani. Sri Lankan, Bengali and Nepali hot numbers which kept the crowd on their feet throughout the day.
As history was re written with 11,000 spectators in the stadium The Six Nation Cricket Tournament 2014 on the Qatar National day came to an end with a grand win for Pakistan. The entire stadium eagerly awaited for the final lucky draws and Prize giving ceremony. Col Muftha with many MOI Directors & Officials , Zaheer Abbas , Azim and other dignitaries were invited by Nafis for the Grand Award Function. First the teams of Nepal, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh who bowed out from the tournament were each given chq's of QR 2000 , Second Runner up Qatar Expatriate Team was give Qr 3000, The Runners Up Trophy was lifted by Indian Captain Parvez with a chq of Qr 4000 and then the entire stadium roared and gave a thunderous applause to the Pakistani team who for the second consecutive year lifted the Winner’s Trophy and Qr 7000 chq with ONE LOVE Mementos presented by Col Muftha & Zaheer Abbas.
Col Abdulla Khalifa Muftha thanked Zaheer Abbas & the entire organizing team lead by Azim Abbas who also thanked The Organizing Committee for Associated Activities for the Qatar National Day Celebrations for giving this honor for conducting the matches and praised the efforts of Col Muftha, Faisal Hudawi and all the volunteers and friends for supporting in hosting the exciting fun filled matches. Azim claiming that this successful tournament will be mentioned in Golden Words in the history of Cricket Qatar and said it’s the beginning of an new era for cricket in Qatar we promise to take cricket to a next level.
Zaheer Abbas was honored and quiet happy on being invited and promised to help for the betterment of cricket in Doha. Thus the matches concluded with greetings and wishes for the Qatar National Day to the Government & People of Qatar.
