KARACHI: The long wait for Karachi to lay hands on a domestic title in the shortest form of cricket finally ended late Friday night when the Blues side clinched the Cool & Cool presents Jazz National T20 Cup final against the Whites by just three runs in Multan.

Egged on by a noisy turnout of around 18,000 spectators at the Multan Cricket Stadium, both the Karachi outfits collectively provided an invigorating game that went down to the wire and culminated in the narrowest margin of victory recorded in the history of the national T20 tournaments.

An elated Karachi Blues skipper Khalid Latif paid glowing tribute to the entire squad for the great victory. “This is the moment we have been waiting for all these years. The pain of losing several National T20 Cup finals [in the previous years] is finally over,” Khalid told Dawn. “It would be unfair on my part to single out anyone for this tremendous achievement. Everyone contributed in our success. But there were some exceptions like Saeed Ajmal who proved that he is still the best bowler in this form of cricket and led our bowling brilliantly with his 20 wickets in the tournament.

“After our semi-final win, I said at the post-match ceremony that we wouldn’t mind who lift the trophy because whatever happens, the title will go to Karachi for the first time. Overall, it was a great final and neither team deserved to lose.”

Karachi Whites skipper Akbar-ur-Rehman, while congratulating Karachi Blues, said he was also extremely delighted at one of Karachi teams winning the title. “Both teams played a great game of cricket and, as Khalid said, it is a victory for the entire city of Karachi. This is probably the best final in my view and we were all proud to be involved in it,” Akbar commented. “Of course, one team had to win and sadly we didn’t. Karachi Blues obviously were more deserving than us [to lift the title] since they had been in the finals several times in the past tournaments.”

With just 11 runs required by Karachi Whites, Mohammad Nawaz bowled a brilliant last over despite being reverse-swept for a first-ball boundary by Mohammad Hasan, who then was cleaned up by an arm-ball on the third one.

The fourth one was sliced over the region cover for a brace of runs by incoming batsman Azam Hussain before Nawaz trapped the tail-ender lg before on the penultimate delivery of the final. Mir Hamza then managed only a single with a wild heave to deep mid-wicket to trigger jubilant scenes on the field by the Karachi Blues team.

Both captains offered their gratitude to the knowledgeable Multan cricket diehards for supporting the teams equally throughout the match, while wholeheartedly admitting that they felt as if they were playing in their hometown.

But it was Nawaz, the Pakistan all-rounder from Rawalpindi, who proved to be the real game-changer with those two wickets at the death after bringing back Karachi Blues back into the game.

Ironically, two of the Pakistan discards who played in the inaugural final at Lahore in April 2005 when Faisalabad Wolves defeated Karachi Dolphins by two wickets, starred with the bat in the title-decider obn Friday after the Blues lost their in-form openers Shahzaib Hasan and Khalid Latif cheaply.

Both Khurram Manzoor and Fawad Alam couldn’t have asked for an appropriate moment to erase the pain they suffered over the years in several finals since then by sharing the most productive partnership of this game as they put on 112 for the third wicket in 68 deliveries that laid the foundation of a total of 182-3 after Khalid opted to bat first at the toss.

Khurram, grieved by the death of his father in Karachi last Sunday, had a point to make after being dismissed thrice without scoring in three of the previous six innings of the championship, including a third-ball dismissal against Karachi Whites in the opening fixture of the event in Rawalpindi on Aug 25. This time, however, the 30-year-old right-hander struck five boundaries and three sixes in a 42-ball 70 that took his T20 career tally to exactly 2,000 runs in 79 appearances.

Fawad, who like Khurram had endured a disappointing tournament prior to the final, made his presence felt with a typically pugnacious effort as he nudged the national selectors yet again by anchoring the innings with an undefeated 67 from 44 balls with the aid of five fours and two sixes. Luck, however, heavily favoured the 30-year-old left-hander. He could have been run out for one and was then let off by wicket-keeper Hasan on three while trying a late cut against a flipper from Akbar.

Mohammad Sami, one of several players on both sides who had been part of the defeated Karachi Dolphins side of the past seasons, contributed a handy 10-ball 20, featuring two sixes, as he helped Fawad accelerate at the end in a stand of 42 in 21 balls.

The Whites launched their chase pretty well when the recalled Asif Zakir, one of two changes from the semi-final win on Thursday, and the left-handed Zain Abbas added 60 from the first seven overs before Nawaz struck twice in successive overs to peg them back. He first got rid of Asif (32 off 26 balls, four fours and one six) and then claimed the prized scalp of in-form Asad Shafiq (6) despite wicket-keeper Saifullah Khan Bangash fumbling on the first stumping attempt.

The Blues then survived late blitz from veteran Tariq Haroon (38 off 17, four sixes) and Sohail Khan (unbeaten 24 off 11 balls, two sixes and two fours) after Zain’s 39-ball innings of 47 was terminated by Mohammad Asghar following the double blows struck by Saeed Ajmal, who sent back Akbar and Danish Aziz to finish with tournament haul of 20 wickets and the best bowler cash award of Rs50,000.

The batsman prize went to Lahore Whites’ Umar Akmal for his tally of 363 ruScoreboard

KARACHI BLUES:

Shahzaib Hasan c Akbar b Tabish 11

Khalid Latif c Danish b Mir Hamza 9

Khurram Manzoor c Tariq b Azam 70

Fawad Alam not out 67

Mohammad Sami not out 20

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-4) 5

TOTAL (for three wkts, 20 overs) 182

FALL OF WKTS: 1-14, 2-28, 3-140.

DID NOT BAT: Mohammad Nawaz, Saifullah Khan Bangash, Bilawal Bhatti, Saeed Ajmal, Rumman Raees Khan, Mohammad Asghar.

Bowling: Tabish Khan 4-0-33-1; Sohail Khan 4-0-31-0; Mir Hamza 4-0-30-1;

Akbar-ur-Rehman 3-0-23-0; Azam Hussain 3-0-36-1; Tariq Haroon 2-0-24-0.

KARACHI WHITES:

Zain Abbas st Saifullah b Asghar 47

Asif Zakir b Nawaz 32

Asad Shafiq st Saifullah b Nawaz 6

Akbar-ur-Rehman c Fawad b Ajmal 1

Danish Aziz c Saifullah b Ajmal 10

Tariq Haroon c Nawaz b Asghar 38

Sohail Khan not out 24

Mohammad Hasan b Nawaz 10

Azam Hussain lbw b Nawaz 2

Mir Hamza not out 1

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-4, NB-1) 8

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 20 overs) 179

FALL OF WKTS: 1-61, 2-77, 3-80, 4-94, 5-128, 6-155, 7-176, 8-178.

DID NOT BAT: Tabish Khan.

BOWLING: Mohammad Sami 4-0-38-0; Rumman Raees Khan 4-0-41-0 (1nb, 1w); Bilawal Bhatti 1-0-14-0; Mohammad Nawaz 4-0-26-4 (1w); Mohammad Asghar 4-0-30-2 (2w); Saeed Ajmal 3-0-27-2.

RESULT: Karachi Blues won by three runs.

UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza and Shozab Raza.

TV UMPIRE: Khalid Mahmood.

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Javed.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Mohammad Nawaz. ns, while Umar’s older brother Kamran Akmal was declared the most outstanding performer of the competition. Nawaz was named man-of-the-match for his magnificent return of 4-26 before Khalid received the winners’ trophy plus Rs2 million, while Akbar settled for Rs1 million and the runners-up trophy.

Published in Dawn September 18th, 2016