March 23, 2006	Thursday	Safar 22, 1427

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KARACHI, March 22: Faisalabad Wolves will be eager to maintain their unblemished record in the National One-day Regional Gold Cricket Championship when they face Lahore Eagles in the final at the National Stadium on Thursday. The Wolves won all six matches in the preliminary phase including a 36-run victory over the Eagles at the NBP Sports Complex last Friday on their way to the final.

The Eagles, however, are inspired by the success of Lahore Lions in the Silver League segment where rain caused the final against Islamabad Leopards to be abandoned without a ball being bowled and the teams were declared joint champions.

The Wolves, who lost their Twenty20 Cup crown to Sialkot Stallions earlier this month at the same venue after a violence-marred final, start as the favourites because of the all-round strength of their squad led by Misbahul Haq.

The Eagles, who in fact, won the same title last season under their former name of Lahore Blues, are a young side with the capability of upsetting the big guns.

Among the players featuring this time, only Arsalan Mir and Jahangir Mirza appeared in the 2004-05 final which Lahore Blues won by 95 runs against Sialkot at the Qadhafi Stadium.

Arsalan, a decent all-rounder, was Man-of-the-Match in that final for his unbeaten 89 and two wickets.

The Gold League champions will get Rs250,000 out of the total prize-money of Rs500,000 with Rs125,000 going to the runners-up. In addition there are five individual cash awards of Rs25,000 each to be disbursed to the Man-of-the-Final, best batsman, best bowler, best wicket-keeper and best fielder.

Team winning the toss is likely to take advantage of the early morning moisture in the pitch and will opt to field first.

Teams (from):

FAISALABAD WOLVES: Misbahul Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Ali, Asif Hussain, Naved Latif, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Salman, Tauqir Hussain, Imran Khalid, Samiullah Niazi, Saeed Ajmal, Asad Ali, Mohammad Zahid, Abdul Mannan, Sabir Hussain.

LAHORE EAGLES: Aamir Sajjad (captain), Mohammad Ashfaq, Abid Ali, Muntazar Mehdi, Arsalan Mir, Kamran Sajid, Jahangir Mirza, Sohail Ahmed, Shahbaz Butt, Waqas Ahmed, Junaid Zia, Usman Malik, Mohammad Khalil, Jamshed Ahmed, Sajid Ali.

Umpires: Salim Badar and Riazuddin.

Match referee: Anwer Khan.