Breathtaking Babar propels SBP into Gold League final

Published January 30, 2015
KARACHI: SBP batting hero Babar Azam steers past Karachi Dolphins’ slip fielder Babar Hussain Agha during his unbeaten century knock in the first semi-final of the President’s Gold League One-day Cup at the National Stadium on Thursday.—Tahir Jamal/White Star
KARACHI: SBP batting hero Babar Azam steers past Karachi Dolphins’ slip fielder Babar Hussain Agha during his unbeaten century knock in the first semi-final of the President’s Gold League One-day Cup at the National Stadium on Thursday.—Tahir Jamal/White Star

KARACHI: The first semi-final of the Haier President’s Gold League One-day Cup was reduced to a virtual no-contest by a scintillating Babar Azam century which enabled State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) floor Karachi Dolphins almost without dropping a sweat at the National Stadium here on Thursday.

On a track where even a total of 300 was going to be peripheral, it was abject surrender from the Dolphins that resulted in a one-way traffic on the deserted roads of the strike-hit city as SBP made light work of a modest 215-run chase.

Babar, one of the brightest prospects to emerge in the last couple of seasons, provided another glimpse of his prodigious talent as he hammered a career-best 142 off 120 balls as SBP romped home with 80 deliveries to spare. It was appropriate the winning runs came off Babar’s punishing blade when he nonchalantly smoked spinner Faraz Ahmed Khan for his 22nd boundary during his sixth List A century.

Seldom has the National Stadium witnessed an authoritative display of batting as the one given by the 20-year-old cousin of the Akmal brothers. Those watching on television must have also noticed this special innings during which Babar disdainfully toyed with the Dolphins bowling while helping himself to a third three-figure knock in the ongoing competition.

It was a real shame that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had not provided the provision of the man-of-the-match award at any stage of the tournament barring the final. But had there been one to be given, Anwer Khan would have probably the easiest adjudication to make during his distinguished long career as a match referee.

Apart from leg-spinner Shahzaib Ahmed Khan, it was a forgetful afternoon for the rest. None suffered more than Mir Hamza. He was hit for 65 in eight overs with Babar striking all 10 boundaries conceded by the left-arm seamer who delivered a maiden over at the start of the run chase.

Abid Ali, Babar’s serene partner in their 175-run partnership from 166 balls, couldn’t help admiring his team-mate time and again from the other end. Such was Babar’s dominance that Abid’s knock of 58 79 balls (four fours) literally went unnoticed.

Shahzaib, who had a decent season, was given respect by both Babar and Abid after he had taken care of Farrukh Shehzad (11 off 21 balls) with a well-disguised googly that bamboozled the 30-year-old right-hander after the opening stand was worth 40.

The first half of the match saw a pitiful batting effort from the Dolphins after SBP captain Mohammad Naveed somewhat surprisingly, given the bland nature of the pitch, opted to bowl first upon winning the toss. There is no partnership to speak of as wickets tumbled through a mixture of poor shot selection and tactical blunders.

Despite the presence of specialist batsmen Mohammad Waqas and Babar Hussain Agha, Faraz Ahmed Khan earned a surprise promotion at the fall of the third wicket.

Head coach Tauseef Ahmed, who had wonders with the Dolphins this season, tinkered with the batting order in some of their league-round fixtures but mostly when his team was chasing. This time, such a move proved disastrous as the Dolphins folded up with 6.4 overs (40 balls) unutilised when spinner Zafar Gohar trapped last man Khurram Shahzad for a first-ball duck.

Mohammad Hasan enhanced his credentials as a pinch-hitter with a busy 81-ball contribution of 65 (eight boundaries) until he was spectacularly run out by Rizwan Haider on his own bowling.

Zafar, despite being repeatedly swept by Hasan, still managed to grab three wickets for 34 runs in 6.2 overs. Rizwan and Naveed took two wickets apiece.

SBP now await winners of the Friday’s other semi-final, between Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), in the final on Sunday.

Scoreboard

KARACHI DOLPHINS:

Fazal Subhan c Naved Yasin b Naveed 22 Rameez Raja b Naveed 15 Mohammad Hasan run out 65 Saad Ali c Babar b Rizwan 21 Faraz Ahmed Khan c Abid b Aamir 19 Mohammad Waqas c Naveed b Rizwan 9 Babar Hussain Agha c Naved Yasin b Zafar 16 Mir Hamza c Naveed b Zafar 26 Adeel Malik not out 2 Shahzaib Ahmed Khan c Usman b Zafar 2 Khurram Shahzad lbw b Zafar 0

EXTRAS (B-1, W-16) 17

TOTAL (all out, 43.2 overs) 214

FALL OF WKTS: 1-30, 2-46, 3-90, 4-126, 5-159, 6-169, 7-206, 8-211, 9-214.

BOWLING: Mohammad Naveed 8-0-43-2 (2w); Aamir Yamin 10-1-51-1 (2w); Kashif Bhatti 10-0-31-1; Rizwan Haider 9-0-54-2 (3w); Zafar Gohar 6.2-0-34-3 (1w).

STATE BANK:

Farrukh Shehzad lbw b Shahzaib 11 Babar Azam not out 142 Abid Ali not out 58

EXTRAS (W-3, NB-1) 4

TOTAL (for one wkt, 36.3 overs) 215

FALL OF WKT: 1-40.

DID NOT BAT: Mukhtar Ahmed, Usman Salahuddin, Naved Yasin, Aamir Yamin, Rizwan Haider, Zafar Gohar, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Naveed.

BOWLING: Mir Hamza 8-1-65-0 (1nb, 1w); Adeel Malik 7-0-37-0 (2w); Shahzaib Ahmed Khan 10-0-44-1; Faraz Ahmed Khan 6.3-0-48-0; Khurram Shahzad 5-0-21-0.

RESULT: State Bank won by nine wickets.

UMPIRES: Tahir Hussain and Asif Yaqoob.

TV UMPIRE: Qaiser Waheed.

MATCH REFEREE: Anwer Khan.

OFFICIAL SCORER: Tariq Noor.

SECOND SEMI-FINAL: KRL vs National Bank, Friday.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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