Mahmood Ahmad
|
Final: Karachi v Sheikhupura at Lahore, 13 May 2001 Mahmood Ahmad |
|
|
:
Sheikhupura Cricket Association innings: Karachi Cricket Association innings: |
The 7th wicket added 34 runs until Aaqib Javed was caught at extra cover off Adnan Malik. The skipper made 15 off 39 balls and hit three boundaries. Faisal Virk, replacing Aaqib at the crease, could make only four before being caught in the second slip off Tabish Nawab. He faced 22 balls during his stay at the crease.
Qaiser added 63 for the 9th wicket with Kashif Raza, bringing up the 150 of the innings in the 40th over. He smashed two consecutive boundaries in the next over, bowled by Shahid Afridi, to rush into the nineties. The 42nd over, bowled by left-handed Adnan, saw Kashif Raza also coming into the act by driving him straight for his first boundary.
The left-hander Qaiser completed his century by driving the first ball of the 44th over down to mid wicket for his 10th boundary. He took 126 to reach the landmark. The last ball of the same over saw Kashif hitting the only six of the innings - a beautiful straight shot over bowler's head.
However, Kashif didn't stay long after that. Trying a similar shot off Adnan Malik, he was completely deceived by the spin, managing only to edge the ball to the keeper. He made 24 off 23 balls.
The next ball by Adnan wrapped it all up, as the last man Farrukh Majeed skied the ball in the air for an easy catch at mid on.
Adnan Malik, the left-arm spinner, finished with three wickets for 48, whereas Tabish got 2 for 32 in a spell of 10 tidy overs.
Qaiser's 106 not out (134 balls, 10 fours) earned him the award for the best batsman of the final, whereas Adnan Malik bagged the prize for the best bowler of the final.
The biggest break for Karachi was the first one, when Imran Nazir played the very first ball off the innings, bowled by Tanvir Ahmed, on to his middle stump. This triggered a downslide from which Sheikhupura never seem to have recovered.
They lost their second wicket in the very next over, bowled by Imran Javed. Mohammad Javed had only faced two balls, when he edged an out-swinger from the pace man to an agile Moin behind the stumps.
Qaiser Abbas and Mujahid Jamshed took the score to 29 by the 6th over, when Tanvir struck for the second time, getting rid of Mujahid for 12 (20 balls).
The left-handed Qaiser, however, carried on resolutely, although being completely helpless about the proceedings at the other end.He added 27 for the fourth wicket with Mohammad Ayub, while bringing up the fifty of the innings in 11th over, before witnessing his partner adjudged lbw for 9 (19 balls). The bowler on this occasion was Imran, who was operating from the College End this time.
The fifth wicket to fall was that of Kaleem Imran who was caught behind the wicket off Shahid Afridi. The Sheikhupura wicket keeper failed to score anything after facing 4 balls.
Qaiser meanwhile reached his fifty (74 balls) in the 25th over of the innings. He is joined at the crease by skipper Aaqib, who is batting on 6 in Karachi's total of 97.
For Karachi, Tanvir Ahmed and Imran Javed have two wickets each for 23 and 40, respectively. Tabish Nawab and Afridi, the spinners, have one scalp each in their bag for respectively, 11 and 18.
After adding valuable 99 for the 3rd wicket with Saeed Bin Nasir (49 off 79, 4 fours), Naumanullah compiled another 55, in about 11 overs, for the 4th with skipper Moin Khan to take Karachi's score to 166 by the 38th over.
The burly right-hander, who had to acquire the services of a runner after cramping his leg midway through the innings, shook off his cautious approach as the innings progressed. He hit 7 fours during his knock, making sufficiently for a tardy start.
Moin, coming to the crease after the dismissal of Saeed Bin Nasir, started off in his usual fashion, converting singles into doubles and doubles into threes, helping the scoring rate jump up quite a bit and enabling his team to reach 150 by the 34th over.
Naumanullah was out 4 overs later, when going for a big hit off leg spinner Farrukh Majeed, he was stumped by keeper Kaleem Imran. Hasan Raza, replacing him at the crease, hit 3 boundaries in his 20-ball knock before being stumped by the Farrukh-Kaleem combination. This wicket, the fifth of the innings, fell at 202 in the 43rd over.
Arif Mahmood then joined Moin at the crease and these two played shots to all parts of the ground, really forcing the pace of scoring. The salient feature of their batting was excellent improvisation, as they didn't even hesitate to go for reverse sweeps on numerous occasions, causing sheer frustration to the bowlers.
It was the 47th over of the innings, bowled by Qaiser Abbas, when the real boost up in scoring was seen. These two collected 14 from that over, as Arif hoisted the left armer for the first six of the innings. The next over, bowled by young Kashif, saw 21 runs coming, with the help of 2 sixes, one each by the two, as Moin reached a magnificent fifty with a six to mid wicket.
The last over, bowled by Aaqib, yielded 14 runs, with Karachi closing their innings at 278 for 5, having added 75 in the last 7 overs and 49 in the last three. Moin Khan remained not out on 67 off 63, whereas Arif got an unbeaten 43 off just 23 balls.
Sheikhupura pace attack, led by experienced Aaqib and Kashif Raza once again bowled with pace and swing to give early breakthroughs to their side. They struck in the third and fourth overs to reduce Karachi to 12 for 2 by the 5th over.
Shahid Afridi was first to go, falling in an attempt to push the scoring after Aaqib and Kashif had tested both openers with some very tight bowling. The right-handed opener had made just 4 (9 balls), when going for a big hit, he offered a skier to mid off.
Zafar Jadoon went in the next over, as he edged a simple catch to Qaiser Abbas at point. The left-hander made 4 after facing 10 balls.
It was extremely slow going after that, as both Saeed Bin Nasir and Naumanullah took their time to adjust to the conditions. With boundaries dried down, both batsmen relied mainly on singles and, in rare cases, doubles. No boundary was seen for 14 overs, after Zafar had pulled Aaqib to long leg in the first over. It was in the 15th over, the second by medium pacer Mohammad Ayub, when Naumanullah smashed two consecutive fours, the first an attractive pull to deep square leg and second a sweetly timed on drive, taking the total into 40's.
With the introduction of spinner from one end, the left-hander Qaiser Abbas, runs began coming with a bit more ease.
Karachi reached the fifty of their innings in the 16th over, as Naumanullah swept Qaiser to long leg for a single.
Thereafter, the two played with a lot more confidence in, finding runs with relative ease, taking their side to 98 by the 25-over mark. Saeed was not out on 45, having hit 4 fours, and Naumanullah was batting on 39, which contained 3 boundaries.
Aaqib, the most successful bowler, has figures of 9 for 1 in 6 overs, whereas Kashif has given away 15 runs in 6 overs to claim one wicket.
Sheikhupura led by veteran Aaqib Javed, who would be looking forward to maintaining his winning streak in the tournament.
The ground temperature is somewhere around 40 degrees and is expected to reach up to 45 as the afternoon approaches. Although the weather is a bit pleasanter than the previous few days, yet heat is expected to play its part during the day’s proceedings.
The crowd presence is as dismal as ever, with not a soul to be seen in the any of the stands here at the Gaddafi. Apart from officials, TV and CricInfo crews and off course the players, absolutely no one has bothered to come to the stadium to watch this expectedly absorbing final of the country’s last domestic competition.
© CricInfo
Date-stamped : 13 May2001 - 18:27