KARACHI: After a hectic nine days of activities, the star-studded President’s Cup One-day cricket tournament has reached the three-match knockout stage with the semi-finals and final to be played here at the National Stadium.

In the first last-four six clash, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) meet Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Tuesday in a repeat of the first-class President’s Trophy Grade-I competition, while National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) take on Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in the pre-final on Wednesday with the winners progressing to Friday’s final.

The biggest shock of the preliminary phase of the competition was the massive failure of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to qualify for the semi-finals from Group ‘B’ after suffering three straight losses. The main beneficiaries of the national carrier’s sloppy show were Wapda who joined pool winners HBL in the last-four round.

The qualifiers from Group ‘A’ were, more or less, straight forward with NBP and SNGPL making it to the semis as widely tipped given the star-billing of their outfits. Quite remarkably all teams qualifying won three and lost of their respective four matches.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), sometimes, stick to their original announcement while planning out events. So it is a pleasant surprise that the Karachi cricket diehards would get a rare opportunity to watch a host of current — and past — stars at close quarters when the knockout games were rescheduled from the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore to the National Stadium.

Till date, no official word has been given behind this sudden change of plans, but according sources the reason is related with the event TV broadcasters who found it much more logistically and financially beneficial to televise the matches live from the Karachi venue than Lahore.

During the league round of matches, one found it quite staggering to find the cricket board staging those games in front of empty enclosures. Instead of making the facility spectator-friendly, high-handed attitude of the security personnel deployed at the stadium made one wish stay at home rather than facing the humiliation of being slammed the gate on the face.

While international teams continue to still regard Pakistan as a virtual ‘no-go’ area, the cricket board has sadly failed to utilise the time by making domestic events more competitive and match venues much friendlier for the enthusiasts of the game, particularly in major centres.

The board officials, in their eagerness to please the master, paid no attention to the needs of the teams and decided to play three of the group fixtures at the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto International Cricket Stadium in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on the outskirts of Larkana. Although, according to witnesses, the ground is in a satisfactory shape, the associated facilities are non-existent. Even potable water had to be carried in the luggage while travelling 40 kilometres from the main city since it is not available at the ground.

Meanwhile, the initial phase of the tournament produced a lot of spills and thrills and a number of brilliant individual performances. The narrowest wins were recorded by SNGPL and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) who prevailed over Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) and Wapda, respectively by two and three runs on the same day during the second round. The other single digit result by runs came when PIA edged past United Bank Limited (UBL) nine runs in the fourth round.

The largest victory in terms of runs belonged to SNGPL who beat NBP by 76 runs on Saturday. Port Qasim Authority (PQA) were the biggest losers by wickets when NBP whipped them by nine wickets. The closest margin of a win by wickets transpired when HBL ousted SBP by three wickets.

Among the individual performances, a total of 12 centuries were made in the 20 matches with openers Khurram Manzoor and Riffatullah Mohmand the only batsmen to score more than one. PQA’s Khurram made the highest number of runs (349 in four matches at an average of 87.25) but his side already eliminated, the likes of Azhar Ali (SNGPL), Riffatullah (Wapda), Sohaib Maqsood (Wapda), Asad Shafiq (HBL) and Ahmed Shehzad (HBL) the chance to usurp the discarded Pakistan opening batsman.

On featherbeds, the bowlers generally struggled for wickets with slow left-armer Hasan Mahmood the highest wicket-taker with 11 scalps at 16.18 and economy of 4.62. The bowlers who could surpass Hasan could be HBL’s Ehsan Adil (9 wickets), NBP’s Imran Khan (8), SNGPL’s Asad Ali (8), Wapda’s Nasir Malik (8) and HBL’s Abdur Rehman (8) because their teams are still in contention.

No matter whatever happens in the remaining three matches, nobody would grudge at the truly stunning performance of Mohammad Hussain Talat. A 16-year-old left-handed opener, Hussain marked his first taste of real time cricket with 272 runs in for games for ZTBL. The highlight, without a shadow of doubt, was that remarkable innings of 141 — the highest individual of the event thus far — from 117 deliveries which helped his team comfortably outclass PQA by eight wickets while chasing 298. The youngster’s belligerent unbeaten effort was embedded with a dozen boundaries and no less than seven sixes.