KARACHI: Riding the crest of a wave and having qualified for their maiden final, Omar Associates will be aiming to win the Patron’s Trophy (Grade-II) Cricket Tournament when they take on Karachi Port Trust (KPT) at the National Stadium here from Sunday.

The presence of fast bowler Mohammad Amir, who is itching to resurrect his blotted Pakistan career after serving the major portion of a five-year international ban for his role in the infamous spot-fixing saga during the Lord’s Test of the 2010 England tour, gives Omar Associates a decisive advantage.

But Omar Associates will miss their regular skipper Saad Nasim, who otherwise would have played in this four-day clash had he not been called up to replace the injured Sohaib Maqsood in the Pakistan one-day squad which flies off to Dhaka on Monday for the series against Bangladesh.

However, Omar Associates still have a strong line-up to counter Saad’s imposed absence. The likes of Mohammad Waqas (317), Umar Siddique (280), Fazal Subhan (279) and Fahad-ul-Haq (260) have been in good form with the bat. The promotion of Waqas to captaincy will spur him on to make a big impact in the final and force the national selectors take notice after being overlooked for the Pakistan ‘A’ tour of Sri Lanka despite performing consistently in the last few seasons.

Amir, who will be celebrating his 23rd birthday on Monday, has shown no sign of corrosion — as a result of the ban — since returning to competitive cricket five weeks ago. The left-armer has led the Omar Associates attack virtually single-handedly with 22 wickets — including innings figures of 6-47 in the semi-final against Khayaban-e-Amin in Lahore — in four matches at an average of 13.82.

KPT, on the other hand, had competed at first-class level in back-to-back seasons in 2003-04 and 2004-05 when Patron’s Trophy was played with first-class status before being relegated. Former Test opener Shadab Kabir was their leading scorer with 588 runs including a memorable career-best knock of 176 in KPT’s victory over future powerhouse of domestic cricket Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL).

In that same fixture at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar, future Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz took seven wickets, including the prized scalp of Misbah-ul-Haq for a five-ball duck in the second innings. Mohammad Hafeez was also a notable participant in that January 2004 game, falling cheaply in both innings to seamer Shahid Iqbal who took 10-65 including career-best figures of 7-19 in the second innings.

KPT’s hopes of rejoining the first-class circuit lie with their strong batting. Opener Nadeem Javed has scored 485 (ave 60.63), followed by Anas Mahmood (303), Faisal Khan (285) and all-rounder Raza Ali Dar (275), while seamer Adeel Malik has been the main wicket-taker with 25 victims.

KPT skipper Mohammad Hasan has still not fired with the bat but his work behind the stumps has made the 25-year-old the leading wicket-keeper in the ongoing event with 23 dismissals (21 catches and two stumpings).

Ahmed Iqbal, an underrated former Pakistan Under-19 cricketer who really deserves recognition at all levels, was the star of KPT’s qualification for the final with a cool-headed century in the drawn semi-final. The 26-year-old struck a last-ball six to give his side lead on the first innings over K-Electric.

National selector Saleem Jaffer was present throughout the three-day tie between KPT and K-Electric at the National Stadium. The ex-Pakistan paceman will definitely monitor the progress of players over the coming four days as both KPT and Omar Associates battle it out to play first-class cricket next season.

Omar Associates have made rapid strides in only their fourth season since making their Patron’s Trophy debut in 2011-12. In the subsequent two seasons, they reached the semi-finals and were denied qualifying for the title-decider on first-innings lead.

Port Qasim Authority won the semi-final at Faisalabad in 2012-13, while K-Electric (then known by their former name Karachi Electric Supply Company) upstaged Omar Associates in the Rawalpindi pre-final in 2013-14.

The winners of the title will earn half of the total prize money of Rs400,000 with the runners-up set to pocket Rs100,000. The man-of-the-match in the final would be awarded Rs25,000 while there are three other individual prizes of the same amount to be given away.

Teams (from):

OMAR ASSOCIATES: Fazal Subhan, Jaahid Ali, Danish Aziz, Umar Siddique, Mohammad Waqas (captain), Fahad-ul-Haq, Saeed Mutabir, Asif Raza, Jalat Khan, Mohammad Amir, Bilal Asif, Abid Hassan, Hafiz Suleman, Imran Dad Khan, Hamza Sultan, Waqar Ali Syed, Waqas Ahmed, Mohammad Salman Zaib.

KARACHI PORT TRUST: Nadeem Javed, Anas Mahmood, Shah Ali Zafar, Faial Khan, Raza Ali Dar, Ahmed Iqbal, Faraz Patel, Mohammad Hasan (captain), Babar Rehman, Mansoor Ahmed, Bilawal, Yasir Hussain, Afaq Ahmed, Nabeel Malik, Khurram Shahzad, Husbaan Javed.

Umpires: Ahsan Raza and Ahmed Shahab.

Match referee: Amiruddin Ansari.

Official scorer: Syed Imran Ali.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play