2 May 2005	Monday	22 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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LAHORE, May 1: Faisalabad Wolves survived some anxious moments before emerging champions of the inaugural ABN Amro Twenty20 Cup with narrow two-wicket victory over Karachi Dolphins in the final before a jam packed Qadhafi Stadium crowd here on Saturday evening (partly reported in Sunday’s edition).

Set to score 159 for win, the Wolves were off to a flying start of 108-3 as opener Mohammad Hafeez (38 off 24 balls with two sixes and four fours) and the in-form Asif Hussain (37 off 36 balls with four fours) made useful contributions.

But once they were dismissed, the Wolves’ remaining batting faltered barring wicket-keeper Mohammad Salman, who scored 23. This was a period when Moin Khan, the Dolphins skipper, marshalled his side astutely.

When the last over of the tournament started, the Wolves needed four runs with four wickets in hand. The game took another unexpected twist when Ahmed Hayat was adjudged out for obstructing the field on the first ball. Imran Khan fell to the next ball when was run out by Haris Ayaz. But Tauqir Hussain ensured no further heroics by the Dolphins as guided Wolves home with one ball remaining.

Earlier, the Dolphins, who asked to bat first after losing the toss, generally found runs difficult to get against some tight bowling. Moin and left-handed opener Agha Sabir were the only batsmen to make some sort of contribution.

Moin scored a 40-ball 49 that included five fours and one six. Sabir, meanwhile, made 37 while facing 40 balls with the help of three boundaries. The pair added 58 for the third wicket before Sabir was brilliantly stumped by Salman off Imran Khalid.

It took some late hitting from Iftikhar Ali (17 off 7 balls with two sixes) and Aminur Rehman (19 off 9) that eventually carried the Dolphins to 158 for seven – a total that eventually proved inadequate.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was the best bowler for the Wolves as he scalped Moin, Iftikhar and Amin for a cost of 29 runs in his quota of four overs.

Later, Naved Latif, the Wolves captain, said that his side won because of a team effort. “We are playing without six of our top players and to win the title in front of a large crowed was a great achievement.”

Naved received the winners trophy and a cash prize of Rs300,000 on behalf of his triumphant squad. Moin, who collected the runners-up trophy besides a cash award of Rs150,000, noted that fielding lapses dented his team’s hopes. “We should have fielded much better than we did. Defending such a small target was always going to be hard. I congratulate them (the Wolves).”

Saeed Ajmal received Rs50,000 for being declared Man-of-the-Final.

Other individual awards (each one worth Rs50,000) went to Asif Hussain of Faisalabad Wolves (best batsman), Lahore Eagles’ Sohail Ahmed (best bowler), Aamir Sajjad of Lahore Eagles (best fielder) and the Eagles’ Kamran Akmal (best wicket-keeper).