KARACHI: Propelled by a Kamran Akmal century, defending champions Federal Areas opened their Pakistan Cup campaign on Thursday with a crushing 114-run victory over inaugural champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.

Batting first on another belter dished out after Wednesday’s opening game yielded as many as 731 runs before Punjab romped home against Balochistan by seven wickets, Federal Areas rattled up 373-6 in their 50 overs.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in reply, never really threatened to make a serious attempt at the daunting target and were bowled out inside 44 overs for 259 after reaching 127-1. Luck also deserted them as Shan Masood (7) fell victim to a dicey LBW verdict from former international umpire Zameer Haider in the fourth over.

And although skipper Mohammad Hafeez (76 off 58 balls, seven fours and four sixes) and Khurram Manzoor (60 off 78, four boundaries) put on 113 in 104 balls, Federal Areas held an iron-like grip as Kamran marshalled his troops well as the skipper opted to take the field in the outfield while allowing Abid Ali to keep wickets.

Earlier, the prolific Kamran registered his 20th one-day century with a typically aggressive fashion as the 36-year-old Pakistan discard bludgeoned 105 from only 84 deliveries, while striking 13 fours and hoisting four sixes.

Kamran was not alone in taking the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bowlers to the cleaners as Abid, Sohaib Maqsood and Saad Nasim all posted half-centuries.

Abid (52 off 57 balls, three fours and one six) helped Kamran put on 152 for the second wicket after Awais Zia had become an early casualty for the persevering Sadaf Hussain, the left-arm fast bowler who has been consistently knocking on the doors of Pakistan cricket for a few seasons now.

Kamran was eventually dismissed at the start of the 27th over by the occasional slow left-armer Saud Shakeel with the veteran wicket-keeper/batsman’s younger sibling Umar Akmal taking the catch.

Sohaib, yet another Pakistan discard, hit up seven fours and one six in making a breezy 44-ball 54 while sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 64 with emerging Pakistan star Hussain Talat (31 off 33, four boundaries).

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s hopes of controlling the rate of scoring faded quickly when Agha Salman (36 off 29, three fours) and Saad Nasim blasted 92 in 59 balls with the latter smashing fie sixes and six fours in 42-ball knock of 78.

Sadaf, however, spared his team’s blushes somewhat with decent recent of 3-67 and also bowled the solitary maiden — 28th over — of this one-sided encounter.

Waqas Maqsood replicated Sadaf later under lights by picking up three wickets as well to lead a fine bowling performance from the holders with not a single wide delivered in the second half of the match.

Scoreboard

FEDERAL AREAS:

Kamran Akmal c Umar b Saud 105
Awais Zia c Hasan b Sadaf 5
Abid Ali c Hafeez b Sadaf 52
Sohaib Maqsood c and b Hassaan 54
Hussain Talat c Hafeez b Hammad 31
Agha Salman b Sadaf 36
Saad Nasim not out 78
Amad Butt not out 6

EXTRAS (B-1, W-4, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (for six wkts, 50 overs) 373

FALL OF WKTS: 1-7, 2-159, 3-183, 4-247, 5-254, 6-346

DID NOT BAT: Raza Hasan, Waqas Maqsood, Usman Khan Shinwari.

BOWLING: Sadaf Hussain 10-1-67-3; Mohammad Irfan 7-0-64-0; Sameen Gul 10-0-81-0 (3w); Hassaan Khan 8-0-54-1; Hammad Azam 9-0-59-1 (1nb); Saud Shakeel 6-0-47-1.

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA:

Khurram Manzoor run out 60
Shan Masood lbw b Waqas 7
Mohammad Hafeez c Awais b Hussain 76
Umar Akmal b Raza 33
Saud Shakeel c sub b Salman 2
Hammad Azam c Kamran b Waqas 37
Mohammad Hasan c sub b Usman 22
Hassaan Khan c Salman b Waqas 0
Mohammad Irfan not out 13
Sameen Gul run out 6
Sadaf Hussain run out 1

EXTRAS (lb-2 2

TOTAL (all out, 43.1 overs) 259

FALL OF WKTS: 1-4, 2-127, 3-176, 4-179, 5-189, 6-234, 7-234, 8-239, 9-251.

BOWLING: Usman Khan Shinwari 7-0-25-1; Waqas Maqsood 8-0-40-3; Raza Hasan 10-0-66-1; Amad Butt 6-0-46-0; Hussain Talat 5-0-37-1; Agha Salman 6-0-39-1; Sohaib Maqsood 1.1-0-4-0.

RESULT: Federal Areas won by 114 runs.

UMPIRES: Qaiser Waheed and Zameer Haider.

TV UMPIRE: Rashid Riaz.

MATCH REFEREE: Aziz-ur-Rehman.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Kamran Akmal.

FRIDAY’S FIXTURE: Sindh vs Balochistan (2:30pm PST).

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018