Veteran Aamir shines as Wapda charge into final

KARACHI: Wapda capitalised on the experience of Aamir Sajjad to outgun Faisalabad Wolves by four wickets to make the Haier President’s Silver League One-day Cup final in Lahore on Friday.

In the last fixture of the Triangular Stage at the Gaddafi Stadium, Wapda were required to chase down Wolves’ modest total of 221 in 48.2 overs in order to reach the final ahead of the regional side. They got home in 46.4 overs thanks largely to seasoned campaigner Aamir’s unblemished contribution of 92.

It wasn’t a roller-coaster ride for the departmental outfit to begin with as they slumped to 52-4 in the opening dozen overs on a pitch labelled ideal for a one-day match.

But Aamir carried his team with sensible batting amid excellent support provided by Ayaz Tasawwar as the pair shared a priceless fifth-wicket partnership of 117 that eventually proved decisive as Wapda earned the right to take on table-toppers Hyderabad Hawks in Sunday’s title-deciding fixture after all three sides finished with two points apiece.

It was a fitting tribute to the veracity of Aamir — one of the unluckiest players to not play international cricket for Pakistan — carried his team through by driving off-spinner Imran Ali Jr to the cover boundary, the seventh four of his 122-ball innings.

Aamir, who turned 34 on the Thursday and has been actively playing in the mainstream of Pakistan’s domestic circuit since 2000-01, rarely looked in trouble against a bowling line-up that troubled the top-order batting in initial overs of the Wapda innings.

Fahim Ashraf, the 21-year-old Wolves captain, delivered a magnificent spell with the new ball during which he sent back both the openers — Mohammad Fayyaz and Iftikhar Ahmed — as well as the left-handed Adnan Raees.

Of the batsmen dismissed, Fayyaz should consider himself as extremely unfortunate since he was adjudged caught behind despite the ball missing his bat. But Iftikhar and Adnan both fell to bad shots.

Riffatullah Mohmand was other batsman to fall before Aamir and Ayaz got together. The 38-year-old, who is keeping wickets as well in the ongoing competition, was run out for a 27-ball 25.

The left-handed Ayaz took up the role of aggressor as he and Aamir methodically put Wapda’s chase back on the track gradually. In the 26th over, twice in succession Ayaz cut slow left-armer Sadaqat Ali to the fence and then swept him fine for another boundary.

Just as it appeared Wapda would get into the final with losing another wicket, Ayaz attempted an injudicious stroke and under-edged the delivery from paceman Naseer Akram onto his stumps after having struck three boundaries in scoring 52 from 62 balls.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan then arrived to help Aamir close in on victory by adding 44 before the skipper was brilliantly caught at midwicket by a diving Asif Ali for 20 (27 balls, one four). But his team was not to be denied another tilt at the title.

Earlier, the Wolves made a dream start as Imran Ali and Iftikhar Ahmed — not to be confused with his unrelated exact namesake in the opposing team — to thwart Wapda’s attempt to pick up early wickets upon winning the toss and opting to bowl first.

The opening stand was worth a colossal 160 when Wapda finally made the breakthrough midway through the 33rd over. The occasional off-spin of Iftikhar accounted for both Imran (65 off 95 balls, seven boundaries) and Iftikhar for a career-best 88 (107 balls, nine fours and one six).

Wapda needed that first wicket into the game as the Wolves suffered an inexplicable collapse as they lost nine wickets for 40 runs, including a sensational period of mayhem during which the regional side saw five of their batsmen head back to the pavillion for the addition of as many runs.

Zulfiqar Babar yet again proved he can be a dangerous customer when it comes to containing the batsmen as well as outfoxing them. The Test slow left-armer snared crucial wickets in batting powerplay to finish with excellent return of 3-39 in 10 overs.

Scoreboard

FAISALABAD WOLVES:

Imran Ali st Riffatullah b Iftikhar65 Iftikhar Ahmed b Iftikhar88 Asif Ali c Adnan b Waqas11 Hasan Mahmood c Fayyaz b Zulfiqar5 Fahim Ashraf c Zulfiqar b Waqas9
Waqas Wasif b Zulfiqar0 Jahandad Khan b Zulfiqar0 Naseer Akram c Iftikhar b Khalid2 Sadaqat Ali c Rana Naved b Khalid2 Ali Shan run out20 Imran Ali Jr not out3

EXTRAS (LB-6, W-3, NB-7)16

TOTAL (all out, 50 overs)221

FALL OF WKTS: 1-160, 2-176, 3-182, 4-193, 5-194, 6-194, 7-195, 8-198, 9-200.

BOWLING: Rana Naved-ul-Hasan 9-0-34-0 (5nb); Mohammad Ali Bhutta 6-1-11-0 (1w); Waqas Maqsood 10-1-58-2 (2nb, 2w); Zulfiqar Babar 10-0-39-3; Khalid Usman 10-1-45-2; Iftikhar Ahmed 5-0-28-2.

WAPDA:

Mohammad Fayyaz c Ali Shan b Fahim6 Iftikhar Ahmed b Fahim12 Riffatullah Mohmand run out25 Adnan Raees c Ali Shan b Fahim8 Aamir Sajjad not out92 Ayaz Tasawwar b Naseer52 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan c Asif b Imran20 Khalid Usman not out0

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-7, NB-1)9

TOTAL (for six wkts, 46.4 overs)224

FALL OF WKTS: 1-18, 2-37, 3-46, 4-52, 5-169, 6-213.

DID NOT BAT: Zulfiqar Babar, Waqas Maqsood, Mohammad Ali Bhutta.

BOWLING: Naseer Akram 10-1-46-1; Fahim Ashraf 10-1-34-3; Jahandad Khan 10-0-45-0; Sadaqat Ali 8-0-45-0 (1nb, 1w); Imran Ali Jr 8.4-0-53-1 (6w).

RESULT: Wapda won by four wickets.

UMPIRES: Khalid Mahmood and Tahir Hussain.

TV UMPIRE: Ghaffar Kazmi.

MATCH REFEREE: Khalid Niazi.

OFFICIAL SCORER: Azhar Hussain.

FINAL: Hyderabad Hawks vs Wapda on Sunday.

Final standings