KARACHI: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) produced a remorseless performance to crush the title aspirations of the United Bank Limited (UBL) while retaining their President’s Trophy title with a four-day victory by 278 runs at the Multan Cricket Stadium in Multan on Saturday.

After setting the bankers an improbable target of 505, SNGPL cruised home in the post-tea session on the penultimate evening of the five-day fixture as the UBL were dismissed for 226 in their second innings.

Yasir Shah once again was SNGPL’s bowling hero with four wickets for 48 runs as the leg-spinner finished with a match bag of nine for 89. Left-arm seamer Samiullah Khan Niazi chipped in with three wickets but he proved very expensive as his 12 overs yielded 77 runs, including 14 boundaries.

Needing a solid start to the daunting chase, the UBL were dealt a crippling blow when Abid Ali — the tournament’s leading batsman with 850 runs — was trapped leg-before-wicket for four after SNGPL had declared their second innings at 262-8.

Abid’s opening partner Hamza Paracha was caught behind in the next over as Asad Ali celebrated his only wicket of the final. And then on the stroke of lunch, Saeed bin Nasir was held at third slip off Samiullah as the UBL slipped further into misery at 19-3.

The left-handed Saad Sukhail (27 off 24 balls, three fours) survived a few close calls before being adjudged caught in the slips by TV umpire Ahmed Shahab as Khurram held a sharp, low chance off Samiullah.

Khurram, who excelled with four catches on Saturday, sent back Mohammad Zohaib with a stunning effort in the gulley when UBL wicket-keeper attempted to slash over slip cordon but found a leaping Khurram clutching the ball in his right hand.

Staring at huge debacle at 83-5, the UBL managed to double that score mainly because of Mohammad Wajihuddin and Tariq Haroon with both scoring 57. Wajihuddin fell to Yasir after striking 11 fours in his 91-ball innings.

Tariq was more enterprising during his 105-minute stay. The veteran all-rounder’s first nine scoring shots were boundaries. He hit two more fours in his 70-ball knock until Yasir had him taken by an alert Khurram.

Kashif Bhatti used the long handle effectively to make a 43-ball 37 with the aid of six fours and one six before he was last out, caught by Naeemuddin who was declared Man-of-the-Match for his contributions of 192 and 77. In between, Azhar Ali, who had a forgetful final with the bat, grabbed a rare wicket with his part-time leg-spin.

SNGPL skipper Misbah-ul-Haq credited retaining of the title, they also won last season by defeating the Habib Bank Limited in the final at Karachi, to the back-up players.

“We missed several players [Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Azhar, Bilawal Bhatti and Adnan Akmal] including me for most of the tournament because of national duty. But credit to the bench strength of our team as well as the support staff for completing a fine season,” Misbah said in his post-match comments.

“Winning is always a good feeling but it’s not easy when you are defending the title since you have to work hard on all fronts and keep the guys motivated and performing. I think our head coach [Basit Ali] did a tremendous job.”

Earlier, Adnan Akmal was very unlucky at missing out by just one run what would have been the Test wicket-keeper’s only fifth first-class century. The overnight pair of Adnan (64) and Naeemuddin (59) extended their sixth-wicket partnership to 140 before Naeemuddin was caught at the wicket for a 160-ball 77 (eight fours).

Misbah delayed the declaration in anticipation of Adnan reaching the three-figure mark and closed the innings the moment umpire Shozab Raza raised his index finger to adjudge Adnan leg-before-wicket for a 146-ball 99 that included 13 boundaries.

Shozab, quite strangely, didn’t ask the TV umpire to check the legality of the delivery because earlier he had signalled ‘no-ball’ when Prince Abbas had taken a wicket after verifying with the third official!

UBL skipper Atif Maqbool later commented that it was learning experience for his players who collectively performed exceptionally to ensure their team topped the standings at the end of the league phase.

“Definitely we have no regrets at losing [the final] because playing against the top departmental sides itself and winning against them was great for us.

“Most of the matches we played were in northern parts of the country where the pitches favoured bowlers,” Atif remarked. “We learnt a lot by playing in tough conditions and I hope the boys would perform with the same spirits and zeal which we exhibited this season. The SNGPL certainly were far stronger than us and fully deserved their success.”

Scoreboard SNGPL (1st Innings) 386 (Naeemuddin 192, Misbah-ul-Haq 67; Atif Maqbool 4-84, Kashif Bhatti 2-79, Tariq Haroon 2-112). UBL (1st Innings) 144 (Abid Ali 51; Yasir Shah 5-41, Imran Ali 2-26) SNGPL (2nd Innings, overnight 195-5): Ali Waqas c Hamza b Tariq 0 Taufiq Umar c Zohaib b Tariq 0 Azhar Ali c Zohaib b Tariq 0 Khurram Shehzad b Prince 26 Misbah-ul-Haq c Zohaib b Adil 34 Naeemuddin c Zohaib b Prince 77 Adnan Akmal lbw b Adil 99 Yasir Shah c and b Adil 8 Imran Ali not out 3 EXTRAS (LB-8, W-6, NB-1) 15 TOTAL (for eight wkts decl, 82.5 overs) 262 FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-0, 3-10, 4-57, 5-84, 6-224, 7-249, 8-262. BOWLING: Tariq Haroon 21-5-54-3 (2w); Prince Abbas 19-1-61-2 (1nb); Kashif Bhatti 9-2-30-0; Mohammad Wajihuddin 3-0-8-0; Atif Maqbool 16-3-39-0; Adil Raza 13.5-2-51-3; Hamza Paracha 1-0-11-0. UBL (2nd Innings): Abid Ali lbw b Samiullah 4 Hamza Paracha c Adnan b Asad 2 Saad Sukhail c Khurram b Samiullah 27 Saeed bin Nasir c Khurram b Samiullah 6 Mohammad Wajihuddin lbw b Yasir 57 Mohammad Zohaib c Khurram b Imran 16 Tariq Haroon c Khurram b Yasir 57 Kashif Bhatti c Naeemuddin b Yasir 37 Atif Maqbool st Adnan b Yasir 0 Adil Raza b Azhar 4 Prince Abbas not out 0 EXTRAS (B-13, LB-2, NB-1) 16 TOTAL (all out, 50.2 overs) 226 FALL OF WKTS: 1-4, 2-10, 3-19, 4-52, 5-83, 6-166, 7-207, 8-215, 9-220. BOWLING: Samiullah Khan Niazi 12-0-77-0; Asad Ali 9-2-35-1 (1nb); Imran Ali 5-1-29-0; Yasir Shah 16.2-2-48-4; Khurram Shehzad 2-0-10-0; Azhar Ali 6-2-12-1. RESULT: SNGPL won by 278 runs. UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza and Shozab Raza. TV UMPIRE: Ahmed Shahab. MATCH REFEREE: Musaddeq Rasool Khan. MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Naeemuddin.