Blues bulldoze Lahore Whites to set up all-Karachi T20 Cup final

KARACHI: For the first time in the history of domestic T20 cricket history, Karachi was guaranteed winning its maiden title when the region’s Blues string upstaged Lahore Whites late on Thursday night in Multan to set up a Cool & Cool presents Jazz National T20 Cup final with Karachi Whites.

Approximately three hours after Karachi Whites had dethroned two-time champions Peshawar in the opening semi-final, Karachi Blues put up a dazzling performance to outclass Lahore Blues to clinch the second semi-final by a clinical margin of nine wickets and move into Friday’s title-deciding fixture at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

Surprisingly, both the last-four matches failed to provide absorbing tussles as each time, the team from Karachi emerged deserving winners.

Karachi Blues’ success was secured with as many as eight overs (48 balls) to spare, largely due to the exhilarating first-wicket partnership of 115 in only 68 deliveries between Shahzaib Hasan and skipper Khalid Latif with both men striking exactly the same number of fours and sixes.

Khalid, who on Sept 7 had scored his maiden T20 International half-century in Pakistan’s nine-wicket drubbing of England in Manchester, hammered five sixes and four fours in making a 36-ball 61 before holing out to deep midwicket off slow left-armer Kashif Bhatti when his side were only 13 runs away from the 128-run target.

Pakistan discard Shahzaib, who has lost favour with the national selectors since November 2010, registered his fifth 50-plus score in the ongoing tournament while hitting up 65 off 35 balls to take his aggregate to 333 from eight innings.

The 26-year-old right-hander, fittingly enough, ended the game when he effortlessly hoisted left-arm spinner Kamran Ghulam over long-off for the fifth six of his undefeated knock.

Initially, it was the brilliant Saeed Ajmal spell that hounded Lahore Whites till the end as they huffed and puffed their way to a disappointing 127-6 after captain Kamran Akmal had predicted a much bigger total when he elected to bat first.

Tactically, Lahore Whites — who had decimated Karachi Blues in the league game on Sept 6 by 73 runs — got it horribly wrong when they opted to tinker with their set batting order which had served them so well in the league-round games.

The demotion of Umar Akmal from the usual No.3 spot was one glaring example of this terrible messing up of the game-plan.

Umar had come into the semi-final clash on the back of 361 runs from previous seven knocks in the event.

But on Thursday he managed just two singles from four balls before being well caught in the covers by Mohammad Asghar off a leading edge as he attempted to thrash a straighter delivery from Ajmal out of the stadium.

The departure of Umar literally spelled the end for Lahore Whites. Salman Butt, who batted through the innings to accumulate a run-a-ball 55 with six boundaries, struggled to strike big. Young Hussain Talat struck the only sixes of the Lahore innings, one apiece against Ajmal and Asghar, while contributing 30 from 31 deliveries during the 68-run stand in 61 balls with the obdurate Salman.

Ajmal, who also cleaned up Babar Azam before dismissing Umar and Jahandad Khan in the space of four deliveries in the ninth over, returned splendid figures of 3-21 to extend his haul of wickets to 18.

The man-of-the-match also delivered another emphatic reminder to the national selection committee headed by Inzamam-ul-Haq to revive his international career that was abruptly terminated in August 2014 during ICC’s crackdown on suspect bowling actions.

Scoreboard

LAHORE WHITES:

Salman Butt not out55

Kamran Akmal c Ajmal b Sami19

Babar Azam b Ajmal5

Umar Akmal c Asghar b Ajmal2

Jahandad Khan lbw b Ajmal0

Hussain Talat b Rumman30

Kamran Ghulam b Rumman1

Kashif Bhatti not out4

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-2, W-8)11

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs)127

FALL OF WKTS: 1-31, 2-39, 3-50, 4-51, 5-119, 6-123.

DID NOT BAT: Ehsan Adil, Qaiser Ashraf, Zia-ul-Haq.

BOWLING: Mohammad Sami 4-0-26-1; Rumman Raees Khan 4-0-28-2 (2w); Mohammad Nawaz 3-0-21-0 (1w); Saeed Ajmal 4-0-21-3; Mohammad Asghar 4-0-20-0; Bilawal Bhatti 1-0-8-0.

KARACHI BLUES:

Shahzaib Hasan not out65

Khalid Latif c Jahandad b Kashif61

Mohammad Nawaz not out1

EXTRAS (W-6)6

TOTAL (for one wkt, 12 overs)133

FALL OF WKT: 1-115.

DID NOT BAT: Khurram Manzoor, Fawad Alam, Saifullah Khan Bangash, Mohammad Sami, Bilawal Bhatti, Saeed Ajmal, Rumman Raees Khan, Mohammad Asghar.

BOWLING: Kashif Bhatti 3-0-38-1 (1w); Ehsan Adil 2-0-20-0; Zia-ul-Haq 2-0-24-0; Qaiser Ashraf 2-0-20-0 (1w); Kamran Ghulam 3-0-31-0.

RESULT: Karachi Blues won by nine wickets.

UMPIRES: Ahmed Shahab and Shozab Raza.

TV UMPIRE: Asif Yaqoob.