KARACHI: Leg-spinner Kahaf Patel destroyed Sialkot batting with a six-wicket haul on Thursday as Karachi Blues set up a date with Karachi Whites in the PCB Inter-region Under-19 One-day Championship final in Rawalpindi.

In sharp contrast to Wednesday’s first semi-final at the Pindi Cricket Stadium which yielded exactly 700 runs before Karachi Whites emerged victorious against Lahore Blues by six runs, the second semi-final became horribly lopsided once Sialkot subsided from 94-2 in the 18th over to 119 all out in the 26th over.

Kahaf was unplayable once he came on to bowl second change as none of the Sialkot batsmen could read his repertoire of leg-spin, flippers and googlies. He finished with incredible analysis of six wickets for 26 runs in nine overs.

Kahaf started the downslide by dismissing opener Ashir Mahmood, who was Sialkot’s top-scorer with 37 off 28 balls (four boundaries) after skipper Abdullah Shafiq chose to bat first. He then claimed five more victims to put Karachi Blues in an impregnable position.

Abdullah hit four fours in scoring 35 from 44 deliveries before falling to leg-spinning all-rounder Ashar Qureshi. Ashir Bhatti (16) and Ghulam Mohiuddin (11) were only other batsmen to get into double figures for the shell-shocked Sialkot side.

Ashar lent great support to Kahaf with three for 23 in 5.2 overs.

Karachi Blues then adopted a watchful approach in their chase for the modest target and achieved their objective in the 39th over. Haider Ali anchored the innings with a resourceful contribution as the right-hander ended up making 69. His 115-ball knock included nine fours and the solitary six of the match.

Mohammad Zubair negotiated 61 balls to make 18 with one four while helping Haider put on 73 for the third wicket before needlessly throwing away his wicket when just 26 runs were needed for victory.

Al-rounder Momin Waqar was the pick of the Sialkot bowling with 2-21 in 10 tidy overs of off-spin.

Saturday’s title-decider between Karachi Whites and Karachi Blues will be a day-night game, starting at 4:00pm, according to a Pakistan Cricket Board media release.

The winners of the championship would receive Rs200,000 with the runners-up to get Rs100,000 out of the total prize-money of Rs400,000.

Scoreboard

SIALKOT: Ashir Mahmood b Kahaf 37 Momin Waqar b Izhar 8 Ashir Bhatti c Imran b Ashar 16 Abdullah Shafiq c Usama b Ashar 35 Asad Ali c Arsalan b Kahaf 0 Ghulam Mohiuddin b Kahaf 11 Umar Shafiq c Arsalan b Kahaf 0 Ahmed Bilal b Kahaf 1 Usman Sajjad c Zubair b Ashar 5 Nabeel Arshad lbw b Kahaf 0 Adnan Haider not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-5) 6

TOTAL (all out, 25.2 overs) 119

FALL OF WKTS: 1-15, 2-53, 3-94, 4-96, 5-103, 6-103, 7-111, 8-119, 9-119.

BOWLING: Izhar Gul 4-0-28-1 (3w); Arsalan Wasim 3-0-21-0; Nadir Shah 4-0-20-0; Kahaf Patel 9-2-26-6 (2w); Mohammad Ashar Qureshi 5.2-0-23-3.

KARACHI BLUES:

M. Ashar Qureshi c Abdullah b Momin 4 Imran Shah b Momin 9 Haider Ali not out 69 M. Zubair c A. Mahmood b Asad 18 Usama Butt not out 9 EXTRAS (B-1, W-7, NB-3) 11 TOTAL (for three wkts, 38.4 overs) 120 FALL OF WKTS: 1-10, 2-21, 3-94. DID NOT BAT: Daniyal Naveed, Anas Ilyas, Arsalan Wasim, Izhar Gul, Kahaf Patel, Nadir Shah. BOWLING: Momin Waqar 10-3-21-2; Adnan Haider 3-1-10-0 (1nb); Usman Sajjad 4-0-30-0 (2nb, 3w); Asad Ali 10-1-32-1 (1w); Ghulam Mohiuddin 9.4-2-17-0; Nabeel Arshad 2-0-9-0 (1w). RESULT: Karachi Blues won by seven wickets. UMPIRES: Tariq Rasheed and Farooq Ali Khan. MATCH REFEREE: Kamran Chaudhry. OFFICIAL SCORER: Mohammad Zeeshan.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2017