KARACHI, March 26: Taufiq Umer could not have chosen a more appropriate moment to make the national selectors ponder, by helping himself to an unbeaten century 48 hours after he was sidelined from Pakistan squad for Sharjah Cup.

The 20-year-old left-handed opening batsman scored 108 off 122 deliveries as Habib Bank crushed Allied Bank, led by former Test paceman and a current selector Aqib Javed, and by nine wickets in the Group-I final round fixture of the National One-day Cricket Championship here at UBL Sports Complex Tuesday.

Taufiq was rightly named Man-of-the-Match for his flawless innings that was studded with 11 sweetly-timed fours as Habib Bank made light of their target of 262, finishing the game in the 44th over.

Had Saleem Elahi shown more application than needlessly throwing away his wicket after spanking 67 off just 43 balls in the opening stand of 92 in 11 overs, Habib Bank’s victory could had been more emphatic against a feeble bowling attack.

Saleem perished when he attempted to drive at a wide delivery but instead got the outside edge of the bat and was taken at slip. Until he was dismissed Saleem was middling the ball so well that none of the Allied Bank bowlers troubled him at all. On the way, he struck 10 fours and one six.

Left-hander Imran Farhat, yet another Pakistan reject, also found runs easy to come by. He finished on 79 in the unbroken second wicket partnership of 170 with Taufiq.

Imran’s 99-ball knock was laced with eight hits to the fence.

Earlier, after electing to bat first, Allied Bank reached 261 for eight in their 50 overs. Young opener Usman Tariq made an impressive 71 off 95 balls with the aid of nine boundaries.

The rest of the batting was disappointing given the bland nature of the pitch. Former Test player Wajahatullah Wasti was the next highest scorer with 39 off 40 balls while Aamir Hanif compiled 34 off 49 deliveries.

The bowling honours for Habib Bank were evenly shared by Test leg-spinner Danish Kaneria (two for 43) and medium-pacer Sajid Shah (two for 51). Left-arm pacer Kabir Khan conceded only 38 runs and in the process got rid of the otherwise dangerous Humayun Farhat (29 of 29 balls).