KARACHI: Kamran Public School and Habib Public School overpowered their respective rivals in the HBL Inter-School Cricket Tournament 2014, being organized by the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA).

Kamran Public School inflicted a massive 241-run victory over Azeem Academy in their Group C match here at the Hussain Lawai Naya Nazimabad Stadium while Habib Public School defeated Faitimiya Boys Secondary School (FBSS) by 30 runs in their Group B fixture at the KCCA Stadium.

Put into bat, Kamran Public School posted a mammoth total of 296 for five in the allotted 40 overs with Abdul Moiz (85 off 81 balls), Hammad Alam (61 off 51 balls), Tariq Bakht (57 off 48 balls) and S M Hasnain (37 ff 37 balls) contributing substantially.

Set to score 297 in 40 overs, Azeem Acadmy succumbed to the scorebaord pressure and was routed for 55 in 14.3 overs when opener Saad Iqbal scoring 25 of them. The innings was wrecked by the spin duo of Mohammad Bin Javed (6-14) and Tariq Bakht (3-4).

Electing to bat first, Habib Public School was bowled out for 137 in 37.5 overs as the innings was rocked by medium-pacers Hasan Askari (4-14) and Mudassir Jafri (3-22) with Hasan Ali Khair (40 off 78 balls) and Abdul Tariq (26 off 83 balls) being the only batsmen to offer resistance.

Habib Public School, however, defended the modest score successfully by toppling their opponents for 107 in 24 overs thanks to the lively medium-pacer Zubair Aslam, who claimed five wickets for only 14 runs. FBSS lost the plot soon after the dismissal of their well-set openers Ali Hussain and Mustajab Abbas, who scored 26 and 20 respectively.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd , 2014