KARACHI: Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) regained their first-class status after a gap of four years on Tuesday when they overcame Ghani Glass by five wickets to clinch the Patron’s Trophy Grade-II cricket title in Rawalpindi.

Overnight struggling at 61-4 in pursuit of a small 132-run target at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, ZTBL lost one more wicket — that of nightwatchman Bilawal Iqbal — before Aaqib Shah and captain Saad Nasim finally got the bankers got home in an unbroken partnership of 50.

By virtue of victory in this four-day final, ZTBL would play first-class cricket for the since the 2014-15 season when they compete in the country’s premier competition the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship later this year.

With the departmental qualifier now confirmed, the attention switches to the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-II final when Karachi Blues and Multan clash in the four-day final from May 8 to decide which of these two regions qualify to play at the first-class level next season.

Aaqib, who was deservingly declared man-of-the-match for his knocks of 72 and unbeaten 47, let Saad take over the role aggressor after paceman Mohammad Umar added the scalp of Bilawal (14) to the three he had picked late on Monday evening.

Aaqib’s 90-ball innings contained three boundaries while Saad hit a brace of fours in making 31 off 27 deliveries.

Umar ended up with four wickets for 60 runs to finish with match figures of 8-180 but his lionhearted performance eventually proved insufficient because Ghani Glass’ playing XI was hardly picked on merit, a point illustrated by the contentious selection of Moeez Ghani as captain.

In five matches, the 19-year-old left-hander mustered just 54 runs in six innings at a dismal average of 9.00 during the tournament.

ZTBL collected the winners’ trophy along with cash award of Rs500,00 while Ghani Glass picked up Rs250,000 and the runners-up.

Among individual prizes — each worth Rs50,000 — Aaqib got the man-of-the-match award, Zeeshan Ashraf bagged the best batsman prize for his 512 runs in the competition, ZTBL’s Mohammad Ali won the best bowler award for taking 35 wickets while the best all-rounder/outstanding cricketer prize was split between ZTBL’s Hamza Nadeem (184 runs and 34 wickets) and Haider Traders’ Jalat Khan (179 runs and 34 wickets).

Scoreboard

ZTBL (1st Innings) 293 (Aaqib Shah 72, Saad Nasim 71, Shakeel Ansar 52, Raza Ali Dar 26; Mohammad Umar 4-120, Hasnain Bukhari 3-41, Ulfat Shah 2-58).

GHANI GLASS 55 (Zeeshan Ashraf 14; Hamza Nadeem 3-17, Bilawal Iqbal 3-27, Waqas Saleem 2-4, Mohammad Ali 2-5).

GHANI GLASS (2nd Innings) 369 (Zeeshan Ashraf 119, Yousuf Babar 84, Mohammad Waheed 63, Shahbaz Javed 28, Ulfat Shah 23; Mohammad Ali 3-68, Mohsin Nadeem 2-31, Bilawal Iqbal 2-58, Hamza Nadeem 2-88).

ZTBL (2nd Innings, overnight 61-4):

Saadullah Ghauri b Umar 0
Waqas Saleem c Moeez b Umar 18
Usman Ashraf b Umar 0
Mohsin Nadeem lbw b Ulfat 10
Aaqib Shah not out 47
Bilawal Iqbal c Yousuf b Umar 14
Saad Nasim not out 31

EXTRAS (B-3, LB-1, NB-10) 14

TOTAL (for five wkts, 33.4 overs) 134

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-0, 3-23, 4-54, 5-84

BOWLING: Mohammad Umar 14-1-60-4 (6nb); Ulfat Shah 9-1-34-1 (3nb); Abdul Mateen 0.5-0-0-0; Mohammad Waheed 3.1-0-12-0 (1nb); Hasnain Bukhari 6.4-0-24-0.

RESULT: ZTBL won by five wickets.

UMPIRES: Nadeem Iqbal and Raweed Khan.

MATCH REFEREE: Ali Naqvi.

OFFICIAL SCORER: Shakeel Ahmed.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Aaqib Shah.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2018