KARACHI, March 22: PIA became joint champions of the Patron’s Trophy — the only trophy that had eluded them for so long — when the rain-hit final against Habib Bank petered out in a predictable draw at the Qadhafi Stadium in Lahore on Tuesday.
PIA advanced to 154 for three on the unscheduled sixth day before the match was called off after the eighth mandatory over. The national carrier needed an overall target of 445 to overhaul Habib Bank’s total to clinch the title on first innings lead. Altogether, almost of 30 hours of playing time was lost to rain.
Following no play on scheduled fifth and final day on Monday, the game was extended by a day. But even on Tuesday, the match could not get under way until 2.00pm after further rain in the morning left the field saturated.
In 33 overs available to them, PIA added 95 runs to their Sunday’s tally of 59 for no loss.
Kamran Sajid, who was adjudged the best batsman of the tournament with 578 runs, was run out for 53 after his opening partner Ghulam Ali had gone for 45. The left-handed Kamran hit nine fours in his 144-ball innings. Ghulam, the 38-year-old right-hander, laced his 59-ball knock with 10 boundaries.
The third man to be dismissed was Shoaib Khan who contributed 23. Asif Mujtaba (9) and Mahmood Hamid (13) remained undefeated.
Moin Khan and Imran Farhat, the rival skippers, collected Rs225,000 each on behalf of their teams along with the trophies.
Left-arm medium-pacer Najaf Shah completed a double for PIA in the individual awards when he was declared the competition’s best bowler with 36 scalps. PTCL duo of Zulqarnain Haider (19 dismissals) and Ashar Zaidi (10 catches) were adjudged the best wicket-keeper and best fielder respectively.
In hindsight, the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to shift the final from Karachi to Lahore turned out to be a catastrophic one since rain had been forecast in the Punjab capital well in advance.
SCOREBOARD
HABIB BANK (1st Innings) 444 (Imran Farhat 215, Sajid Shah 45, Farhan
Adil 43; Aizaz Cheema 3-65, Asif Mujtaba 3-68).
PIA (1st Innings, overnight 59-0 from Sunday):
Kamran Sajid run out
53
Ghulam Ali c Kabir b A. Rahman
45
Shoaib Khan lbw b Imran
23
Asif Mujtaba not out
9
Mahmood Hamid not out
13
EXTRAS (LB-5, NB-6)
11
TOTAL (for three wkts, 51 overs)
154
FALL OF WKTS: 1-69, 2-128, 3-137.
DID NOT BAT: Zeeshan Pervez, Moin Khan, Janisar Khan, Najaf Shah,
Fazle Akbar.
