April 11, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 4, 1429

KARACHI, April 10: Inspired by paceman Imran Ali’s hat-trick, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) trounced Habib Bank by seven wickets to clinch the ABN-Amro National One-day Cup at the National Stadium here on Thursday.

After what turned out to be a lop-sided limited-overs final, SNGPL completed a unique domestic cricket double this season at this same venue having lifted the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy earlier this year after the five-day final against the bankers ended in a draw.

The day/night final, which was supposed to be a day-night affair, ended in brilliant sunshine when Azhar Shafiq scored a single to complete a thoroughly deserved victory for his side.

Azhar, the bearded left-hander, remained unbeaten with 52 – the solitary half-century of the final – as SNGPL reached their target of 128 with as many as 12.5 overs to spare.

Skipper Mohammad Hafeez had earlier launched the SNGPL innings with some sparkling strokes, which included eight fours and one six, in a 58-ball knock of 44. The discarded Pakistan opener added 77 for the second wicket on either side of the supper break with Azhar, whose 64-ball innings contained six boundaries.

But the game was long over eve before SNGPL went to bat. On a pitch that hardly favoured bowling, Habib Bank capitulated dramatically for a worthless 127 inside 34 overs after Hafeez had inserted them in.

After opening bowlers Samiullah Niazi and Asad Ali had removed the top four batsmen for 43 runs, the bankers made a valiant attempt to infuse some sort of life into their innings through Khaqan Arsal and Salman Qadir, both of whom would have hardly played had the likes of Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi not been on national duty.

The fifth-wicket pair kept the rampant SNGPL bowlers at bay for 77 deliveries while collecting 45 runs before the rot set in.

Imran Ali, a 27-year-old right-arm medium-pacer, struck thrice in three consecutive balls of his fifth over to put Habib Bank’s innings beyond repairs.

Khaqan (35 off 55 balls, four fours) spooned the third delivery of that sensational over to Imran Khalid at mid-off before Hafeez held two outstanding slip catches to enable Imran Ali achieved this year’s tournament’s only hat-trick.

Imran produced a gem of an out-swinger to catch the edge of his second victim Kamran Hussain before he slanted the next ball across left-hander Abdul Rehman who only managed to edge a low catch to Hafeez.

When asked after the game whether he was confident of claiming three wickets in successive balls, Imran said: “I sensed it that the hat-trick was forthcoming because somehow I always fancy getting [Abdul] Rehman out since I had dismissed him on a number of occasions.”

Imran, who had never claimed a hat-trick in any form of the game until Thursday, admitted that he was over the moon in taking three in three.

“It’s is definitely the high point of my career. I must confess that it was my lucky day to have Rehman facing the hat-trick ball,” Imran, who plays in the Birmingham league in England, coyly remarked.

Imran, the obvious recipient of the Rs50,000 Man-of-the-Match award, also dismissed Fahad Masood and Salman Qadir, who was last out for a 51-ball 35 (four fours), to end up with five for 33 in 9.1 overs.

An elated Hafeez collected the winners’ cash prize of Rs500,000 from the sponsors, ABN-AMRO Bank, besides the trophy. A dejected Sajid Shah received the runners-up trophy and Rs250,000 on behalf of his team, which had narrowly lost to SNGPL in the Super-Eight round match here eight days ago.

But Habib Bank, who were also cruelly ‘robbed’ by defection of five regular stars to the rebel Indian Cricket League, had some cause to celebrate since three of their players were declared winners of the individual prizes (each worth Rs50,000), which went to Younis (best fielder), Farhan Iqbal (best wicket-keeper) and Abdul Rehman (best bowler).

KRL’s Azhar Ali won the best batsman award for scoring 558 runs before his team was defeated by SNGPL at the semi-final stage.

Scoreboard

HABIB BANK:

Riffatullah Mohmand b Sami 16

Sajid Shah c Saleem b Asad 0

Farhan Iqbal lbw b Asad 1

Aftab Khan c Azhar b Sami 5

Khaqan Arsal c I. Khalid b Imran Ali 35

Salman Qadir lbw b Imran Ali 35

Kamran Hussain c Hafeez b Imran Ali 0

Abdul Rehman c Hafeez b Imran Ali 0

Aslam Qureshi c Adnan b I. Khalid 7

Fahad Masood b Imran Ali 8

Danish Kaneria not out 4

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-9, NB-4) 16

TOTAL (all out, 33.1 overs) 127

FALL OF WKTS: 1-14, 2-21, 3-32, 4-43, 5-88, 6-88, 7-88, 8-103, 9-122.

BOWLING: Samiullah Niazi 1-31-2 (1nb, 3w); Asad Ali 8-0-33-2 (3nb, 6w); Imran Ali 9.1-1-33-5; Mohammad Hafeez 5-0-17-0; Imran Khalid 3-0-10-1.

SNGPL:

Mohammad Hafeez c Sajid b Rehman 44

Ali Waqas c Aftab b Fahad 3

Azhar Shafiq not out 52

Umar Akmal c Aftab b Rehman 8

Khurram Shahzad not out 13

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-5) 8

TOTAL (for three wickets, 27.1 overs) 128

FALL OF WKTS: 1-13, 2-90, 3-102.

DID NOT BAT: Saleem Mughal, Adnan Akmal, Imran Khalid, Samiullah Niazi, Imran Ali, Asad Ali.

BOWLING: Fahad Masood 4-1-13-1; Sajid Shah 3-0-24-0; Danish Kaneria 10-1-52-0 (5w); Abdul Rehman 10-2-35-2; Salman Qadir 0.1-0-1-0.

RESULT: SNGPL won by seven wickets.

UMPIRES: Ahmed Shahab and Zameer Haider.

TV UMPIRE: Afzaal Ahmed.

MATCH REFEREE: Ishtiaq Ahmed.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Imran Ali.