KARACHI: The Silver League final of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship could go either way after a stupendous double century by Babar Azam revived State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)’s title hopes in Faisalabad on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Babar converted his maiden century into a magnificent 266 to enable SBP declared their second innings at 528-8 and set Habib Bank Limited (HBL) a challenging target of 334.

At stumps on the penultimate day of the five-day final, HBL reached 30-1 on an Iqbal Stadium pitch that despite being benign is providing spinners good purchase. Slow left-armer Kashif Bhatti made the breakthrough when he bowled Aftab Khan for seven in the second last over of the evening.

On Sunday’s last day, HBL will need another 304 for an outright title-sealing victory. Even a draw will be enough for them to lift the trophy and qualify for next season’s top tier Gold League competition.

Starting at 251-3 on Saturday with a slender lead of 57 runs, SBP continued their splendid comeback into the match largely due to the single-handed efforts of the talented Babar who resumed at his overnight score of 150.

Babar, who had reached the three-figure mark on Friday with a square-driven boundary off slow left-armer Aslam Qureshi, advanced to the magical double century landmark with a deft late cut off the same bowler to reach 202 in 386 balls.

The young right-hander then survived a stumping attempt on the very next ball but TV replays clearly indicated that his back foot was well behind the line when Humayun Farhat whipped off the bails in a flash.

With invaluable contributions from Usman Salahuddin (38 off 144 balls, four boundaries), Naved Yasin (29 off 68, three fours) and Rizwan Haider (23 off 26, two sixes), Babar led the fightback.

Usman aided him in the fourth-wicket partnership of 130 in 197 minutes; Naved then helped Babar put on 87 in 89 minutes for the next wicket before Rizwan joined the youngster in a quick stand of 41 in 34 minutes.

Babar’s marathon innings, lasting 588 minutes, finally came to an end when he was caught by substitute Fakhar Zaman at long-off when he tried to blast Aslam out of the ground. During his 435-ball knock Babar hit 29 fours and hoisted five sixes.

Maqbool Ahmed, with Babar added 61 for the seventh wicket, remained undefeated on a 48-ball 49 (four boundaries) while Mohtashim Ali scored 27 when the declaration was made.

Test spinner Abdur Rehman bowled without luck as did his partner Aslam. Their plight was not helped by poor standard of umpiring from both seasoned official Riazuddin and his colleague Mohammad Asif.

Rehman claimed four wickets for 222 runs in 64.5 overs and Aslam sent down 49 overs to take three for 182. The pair collectively bagged 14 of the 18 wickets SBP lost in the match.

Scoreboard

STATE BANK (1st Innings) 162 (Aamir Yamin 54, Zafar Gohar 31, Naved Yasin 21; Abdur Rehman 4-35, Aslam Qureshi 3-22, Aftab Khan 2-28).

HABIB BANK (1st Innings) 356 (Kamran Hussain 76, Humayun Farhat 61, Hasan Raza 45, Aftab Khan 43, Rameez Aziz 28, Fahad Masood 28; Kashif Bhatti 5-113, Zafar Gohar 3-125, Rizwan Haider 2-41).

STATE BANK (2nd Innings, overnight 251-3):

Babar Azam c sub b Aslam 266

Aamir Yamin c Humayun b Rehman 6

Zafar Gohar c Humayun b Kamran 26

Mukhtar Ahmed b Rehman 26

Usman Salahuddin c Aftab b Rehman 38

Naved Yasin st Humayun b Rehman 29

Rizwan Haider lbw b Aslam 23

Maqbool Ahmed not out 49

Kashif Bhatti lbw b Aslam 12

Mohtashim Ali not out 27 EXTRAS (B-12, LB-3, NB-10) 25

TOTAL (for eight wkts decl, 152.5 overs) 527

FALL OF WKTS: 1-6, 2-70, 3-131, 4-261, 5-348, 6-389, 7-450, 8-472.

BOWLING: Sarmad Anwar 7-2-35-0 (5nb); Abdur Rehman 64.5-8-222-4 (1nb); Aslam Qureshi 49-6-182-3; Aftab Khan 9-0-20-0; Rameez Aziz 1-0-2-0; Kamran Hussain 21-9-43-1 (4nb); Imran Farhat 1-0-8-0.

HABIB BANK (2nd Innings, target 334):

Bilal Shafayat not out 20

Aftab Khan b Kashif 7

Aslam Qureshi not out 0

EXTRAS (W-1, NB-2) 3

TOTAL (for one wkt, 14 overs) 30

FALL OF WKT: 1-28.

BOWLING (to-date): Rizwan Haider 5-3-7-0; Mohammad Naved 3-0-7-0 (2nb, 1w); Zafar Gohar 4-0-15-0; Kashif Bhatti 2-1-1-1.

Published in Dawn December 7th , 2014