KARACHI: Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa emerged as thoroughly deserving champions of the Cool & Cool presents Haier Pakistan Cup one-day cricket tournament after crushing the aspirants of Punjab with a 151-run rout in Faisalabad on Sunday night (partly reported in Monday’s edition).

The title-deciding fixture at the Iqbal Stadium lacked the intensity in a lopsided second half when an almost full house saw Punjab capitulate like a pack of cards for a sorry-looking 160 at the start of the 37th over with just four batsmen managing to score more than 20 in the entire innings and not a single of them answering the distress Mayday call.

This happened after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa batsmen, spearheaded by talented opener Fakhar Zaman’s superlative 115, had batted themselves into a commanding position in sweltering heat with the mercury reaching an unbearable high of 42 degrees Celsius under the late afternoon sun to pile up 311-9.

Remarkably, the league-round fixture between these teams produced a thrilling two-run win for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but the final provided a complete contrast to what had transpired on April 22. Sunday’s annihilation was the most one-sided result in the 11-match competition.

On a pitch offering little help for the bowlers, the way Punjab batsmen fared suggested that Shoaib Malik and his men had launched the 312-run chase without any game plan, to speak of. The departure of Salman Butt to the eighth delivery of the innings literally spelled the doom for them.

The former Pakistan captain — mastermind of the disgraceful spot-fixing fiasco during the final Test of the 2010 Test series against England at Lord’s — was beaten by lovely ball from upcoming left-arm seamer Zia-ul-Haq to be trapped leg-before-wicket for a second-ball duck.

Test opener Shan Masood played several pleasing strokes but it was a matter of time before the rot set in. Pinch-hitter Aamir Yamin perished to a one-handed take at point by Yasir Shah for a 15-ball 1 to leave Punjab reeling at 29-2 in the eighth over.

The rest of the innings merely became a formality. After his brilliant display with the bat, Fakhar couldn’t do any wrong as he plucked a stunning catch in the covers, timing his jump to perfection, to hold the ball one-handed as Asad Shafiq (16 off 15 balls) drove as hard as he could in find a fourth boundary.

In the next over, Shan (the top scorer with a 40-ball 36, five boundaries) was undone by a sharp turning delivery when the left-hander unwisely went for a cut against spin as Mohammad Asghar lured him to attempt an expansive stroke.

Punjab didn’t lose any wicket for a brief period during which Malik and Mohammad Rizwan gelled to share the biggest partnership of the chase — 42 runs — before the captain holed out in the deep for a 23-ball 24.

Rizwan was out shortly afterwards for 22 (33 balls, two boundaries) before Zohaib Khan bagged his second victim of the over by sending back fellow all-rounder Ammad Butt for duck.

Just as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa anticipated that the end was very near, the left-arm spin duo of Zulfiqar Babar and Kashif Bhatti entertained the crowd with the bat in a breezy stand of 36 with the veteran Zulfiqar wielding the long handle to smash a six apiece off Zohaib and Asghar in a 32-ball contribution of 29.

Zohaib dismissed Zulfiqar for his third wicket before Test spinner Yasir Shah, who had saved his best spell of the competition for the big match, came back to have last man Ehsan Adil edging a simple chance to Ahmed Shehzad at slip.

Shehzad had more to celebrate when he was announced as the recipient off Rs100,000 award for being the tournament’s best batsman after amassing 372 runs at 74.40 in five matches with the help of one century and three half-centuries.

His opening partner Fakhar was the undisputed choice as the man-of-the-match, worth Rs100,000 for the final, while Zohaib completed a clean sweep for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by clinching the best all-rounder prize for scoring 176 runs at 44.00 and claiming 11 wickets (ave 16.63).

Zohaib also had the added satisfaction of sharing the best bowler award since Sindh strike bowler Mohammad Amir had also captured 11 wickets (ave 13.54) in four games during the event.

After embroiling himself in unwanted controversy over umpiring, Younis Khan was back to lead his team to glory as he proudly collected the winners’ trophy and the top prize of Rs2 million jointly from PCB chairman Shaharyar Mohammad Khan and title sponsor’s head Javed Afridi.

Malik had to settle for the runners-up and Rs1 million on behalf of his defeated charges.

Scoreboard

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA:

Ahmed Shehzad st Rizwan b Kashif 62

Fakhar Zaman c sub b Ehsan 115

Zohaib Khan c Ammad b Malik 12

Younis Khan c Shan b Ammad 49

Fahim Ashraf lbw b Ehsan 31

Musadiq Ahmed c Ammad b Aamir 19

Bismillah Khan c Saif b Ammad 5

Yasir Shah b Ammad 4

Sameen Gul run out 0

Mohammad Asghar not out 4

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-6, NB-1) 10

TOTAL (for nine wkts, 50 overs) 311

FALL OF WKTS: 1-118, 2-156, 3-208, 4-265, 5-288, 6-298, 7-305, 8-305, 9-311.

DID NOT BAT: Zia-ul-Haq.

BOWLING: Aamir Yamin 6-0-49-1 (1w); Ehsan Adil 10-0-75-2 (1nb, 1w); Zulfiqar Babar 10-0-63-0 (1w); Ammad Butt 10-0-55-3 (1w); Kashif Bhatti 6-0-32-1 (1w); Shoaib Malik 8-0-34-1 (1w).

PUNJAB:

Shan Masood b Asghar 36

Salman Butt lbw b Zia 0

Aamir Yamin c Yasir b Zia 1

Asad Shafiq c Fakhar b Fahim 16

Shoaib Malik c Fahim b Yasir 24

Mohammad Rizwan c Fahim b Zohaib 22

Saif Badar c Younis b Yasir 10

Ammad Butt c and b Zohaib 0

Zulfiqar Babar lbw b Zohaib 29

Kashif Bhatti not out 15

Ehsan Adil c Shehzad b Yasir 5

EXTRAS (W-2) 2

TOTAL (all out, 36.1 overs) 160

FALL OF WKTS: 1-5, 2-29, 3-53, 4-55, 5-97, 6-107, 7-107, 8-119, 9-155.

BOWLING: Sameen Gul 5-0-31-0 (1w); Zia-ul-Haq 8-2-25-2 (1w); Mohammad Asghar 8-0-45-1; Fahim Ashraf 2-0-10-1; Yasir Shah 8.1-0-26-3; Zohaib Khan 5-0-23-3.

RESULT: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa won by 151 runs.

UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza and Shozab Raza.

TV UMPIRE: Asif Yaqoob.

MATCH REFEREE: Musaddeq Rasool Khan.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Fakhar Zaman.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd , 2016