KARACHI, Nov 13: Two youngsters topped the batting and bowling aggregates of the Patron’s Trophy Grade-I National Cricket Championship which ended Sunday.

Test batsman Faisal Iqbal, the 20-year-old nephew of legendary Javed Miandad, had the honour of accumulating 743 runs in nine matches for PIA.

The bowling honours went to Pakistan Customs’ 21-year-old Waqar Ahmed. The diminutive left-arm paceman from Peshawar claimed 51 wickets, just ahead of Abdur Rauf, the 22-year-old Renala Khurd speedster who was without doubt the star performer for Sui Gas.

Rauf, who like Waqar played eight matches, captured exactly 50 wickets but his great deeds with the ball were not enough to prevent Sui Gas from relegated to Grade-II next season.

Allied Bank’s former Test batsman Ijaz Ahmed Junior, however, achieved the best batting average (63.16) but finished fifth in aggregate with 697 runs. The right-hander from Faisalabad had the distinction of scoring four centuries, one more than Faisal Iqbal and veteran Sajid Ali of National Bank.

Faisal Irfan, the 20-year-old Quetta-born right-arm medium-pacer, had the best bowling by taking 25 wickets in five games for Wapda at mere 14.68 per scalp.

National Bank, who won this championship for the fifth time and their first since 1986-87, also shone on the individual leaderboard as wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal effected the highest number of dismissals (36), followed by PWD’s Mutahir Shah (31), Allied Bank’s Humayun Farhat (30) and ADBP’s Nadeem Hussain (30).

National Bank skipper Mushtaq Ahmed and Allied Bank’s Arshad Khan were the best among the slow bowlers with 39 wickets each. Mushtaq’s performance deserves recognition because the discarded Test leg-spinner played on pitches in the Punjab which were hardly conducive to his type of bowling.

Generally the batsmen experienced a moderate season with only two double centuries recorded. Both were scored in the same innings by Habib Bank’s Imran Farhat (204) and Hasan Raza (200 not out) against ADBP at Sheikhupura.

The performance of the season as far as the bowling is concerned came from Abdur Rauf, who claimed a match haul of 14 for 98 and yet Sui Gas lost to ADBP at Faisalabad. Rauf’s eight for 40 in the same match are the best innings figures.

Habib Bank nearly rewrote the record books when they were shot out for 27 by PIA at Gaddafi Stadium. The bankers experienced almost a similar nightmare when they managed a paltry 61 Wapda at the same venue in the last round with Wapda’s lanky fast bowler Waqas Ahmed taking match haul of 13 for 106.

Pakistan Customs relinquished their hold on the trophy in dramatic fashion when KRL sent them packing for 46 in the penultimate round clash at Hyderabad.