KARACHI: The curtains will be drawn on first-class cricket this season in Pakistan when Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) lock horns from Monday in the Gold League final of the Haier Quaid-i-Azam Tro­phy National Cricket Championship.

The five-day title-decider at the conclusion of the lengthy 11-round segment promises an enthralling battle for supremacy between top two teams.

In recent times, SNGPL have made it a habit of winning top-tier competitions since they lifted both editions of the President Trophy in the previous two seasons before domestic cricket was revamped by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

NBP, on the other, have won more first-class trophies than SNGPL but their last such success was nine seasons when they clinched the Pentangular Trophy under the captaincy of Naumanullah. From that team, current captain Kamran Akmal and Nasir Jamshed will take the field in the upcoming final.

Surprisingly, for a side that usually had the services of many talented individuals, NBP have not won the coveted Quaid-i-Azam Trophy crown since 1986-87. SNGPL won this trophy as recently as 2007-08 when Mohammad Hafeez skippered a team that also included Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal.

All three will be missing this time for a variety of reasons. Hafeez is awaiting departure for Chennai to remedy his bowling action while Misbah has still not recovered from the hamstring injury which cut his participation to just two matches in the ODI series against New Zealand.

The depth of SNGPL squad can be gauged by the fact Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has left out for lack of form. The youngest of the Akmal siblings mustered just 146 runs in 11 matches (ave 13.27) in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy before he was called into Pakistan squad for the ODIs against the Black Caps against whom his miserable form continued with the 24-year-old right-hander making 35 runs in three matches.

But despite the absence of Umar, brotherly won’t be lost during the final with oldest brother Kamran Akmal pitted against Adnan Akmal in the battle of the wicket-keepers if Adnan decides to don the gloves because SNGPL have another invaluable option in Mohammad Rizwan who has played alongside Adnan as a pure batsman.

Both captains expressed the hope the title-decider would be well fought.

Taufiq Umar, leading SNGPL in the enforced absence of both Misbah and Hafeez, said that despite his team topping the standings, he rated NBP as a dangerous side.

“Obviously, it [the standings] counts for nothing because teams play the final in a different frame of mind. We are anticipating the final to be evenly contested and cricket itself to be competitive,” Taufiq told Dawn on Sunday.

“There would be pressure on both teams and not just until the toss takes place. It is unfortunate that most of the times matches are decided by it [toss] at this time of the year when the ball dominates the bat.”

Kamran observed that the game will be a good one and hoped that Mohammad Nawaz continues his development as a player of immense qualities.

“Yeah it would be nice for us to win a major trophy after a long time even though we won the one-day title last season. But winning a first-class competition is something else,” Kamran said while talking to Dawn.

“We have good side this time. I’m very impressed with the way young Nawaz has performed for us. He is a very talented cricketer who will definitely make a name for himself in the post-World Cup period.”

Nawaz, a 20-year-old left-handed all-rounder from Rawalpindi who represented Pakistan in the ICC U-19 World Cup, has scored 532 runs and 18 wickets in the championship. He was instrumental in guiding NBP to the final with 11 wickets in the last-round fixture against Port Qasim Authority last week.

Teams (from):

SNGPL: Taufiq Umar (captain), Imran Butt, Naeemuddin, Azhar Ali, Ali Waqas, Khurram Shehzad, Mohammad Rizwan, Adnan Akmal, Imran Khalid, Yasir Shah, Asad Ali, Imran Ali, Samiullah Khan Niazi, Abubakar Khan, Ahmed Safi Abdullah, Manzoor Khan, Hussain Talat, Atif Jabbar.

NATIONAL BANK: Kamran Akmal (captain), Nasir Jamshed, Sami Aslam, Mohammad Nawaz, Umar Waheed, Fawad Alam, Akbar-ur-Rehman, Wahab Riaz, Ahmed Jamal, Adnan Rasool, Raza Hasan, Zia-ul-Haq, Mohammad Asghar, Hammaduddin, Qaiser Abbas.

Umpires: Ahsan Raza and Shozab Raza.

TV umpire: Ahmed Shahab.

Reserve umpire: Khalid Mahmood.

Match referee: Anwer Khan.

Scorers: Syed Imran Ali (official); Wasim Abbas (media).

Match starts at 10:00am (PST)

Published in Dawn, December 22th, 2014

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...