KARACHI: For the first time in Pakistan domestic cricket history the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad will be contesting in a major final when they clash in the title-decider of the Faysal Bank Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket championship in Lahore from Sunday.

The neighbouring cities qualified for the five-day final at the Gaddafi Stadium by topping their respective pools in the Super Eight stage. Both sides won one of their three games and drew the remaining two.

But in the first phase of the preliminary round, Rawalpindi were far more superior by topping Group I with four wins and two draws from their six fixtures, while Islamabad finished third behind Karachi Whites and Lahore Shalimar, winning three and losing one of their six matches.

On paper, Rawalpindi definitely have the edge over Islamabad given the experience they have in their squad with the likes of international player Awais Zia emerging as the leading run-getter with a tally of 613, while Muzammil Nizam, Shoaib Nasir, Naved Malik and captain Babar Naeem all crossing the 400-run mark.

Haseeb Azam, elder brother of Pakistan discard Hammad Azam, has been Rawalpindi’s trump card with both bat and the ball. Apart from scoring 399 runs, Haseeb has bagged 47 wickets with his nagging medium-pacers.

Strike bowler Nasir Malik has bowled consistently to grab 59 wickets — the only bowler in the championship to top 50 wickets thus far.

Islamabad would be heavily dependent on their skipper Imad Wasim to lay claims on the trophy. The former Pakistan Under-19 captain has been carrying his team’s bating almost single-handedly on his slim shoulders with decent support coming from Faizan Riaz.

Imad has amassed 754 runs with the aid of four centuries, while Faizan has scored 685, followed by Afaq Raheem (485), all-rounder Sarmad Bhatti (480), Ali Sarfraz (474) and Zeeshan Ali (464).

On the bowling front, seamer Shehzad Azam Rana is Islamabad’s leading wicket-taker with 48 victims, while Imad’s slow left-armers have fetched him 39 wickets.

Favourites Rawalpindi are further strengthened by the return of hard-hitting opener Naved Malik who didn’t play in the last match of the Super Eight round against Multan because of his father’s death.

The toss, invariably, would play a significant part in determining the outcome because the trend has been to win it and bowl first in chilly conditions favouring pace bowling.

Out of the hefty prize money of Rs4.2 million, the champions would pocket Rs2.5 million, the runners-up Rs1.5 million while there are four individual awards of Rs50,000 each for the man-of-the-match, best batsman, bowler, and the outstanding performer/all-rounder.

Teams (from):

RAWALPINDI: Shoaib Nasir, Adnan Mahmood, Babar Naeem (captain), Awais Zia, Muzammil Nizam, Zahid Mansoor, Haseeb Azam, Talha Qureshi, Najam Nisar, Nasir Malik, Akhtar Ayub, Naved Malik, Mohammad Muqaddas.

ISLAMABAD: Afaq Raheem, Zeeshan Ali, Ali Sarfraz, Faizan Riaz, Imad Wasim (captain), Asadullah Sumeri, Sarmad Bhatti, Mohammad Kashif, Hamza Nadeem, Shehzad Azam Rana, Mudassar Ali, Junaid Nadir, Nasrullah Khan.

Umpires: Shozab Raza and Zameer Haider.

TV umpire: Ahmed Shahab.

Reserve umpire: Tahir Hussain.

Match referee: Khatib Rizwan.—Khalid H. Khan