KARACHI: Paceman Waqas Maqsood grabbed a career-best six-for as Federal Areas put an end to Balochistan’s aspirations to make Cool & Cool presents Pepsi Pakistan Cup final with a 98-run rout at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad on Thursday.

In the penultimate fixture of the league stage, Balochistan simply couldn’t execute their plans both with the ball and the bat against the unbeaten Federal Areas, who are already through to Sunday’s title-decider even before the start of this game.

Needing to get their target in 30 overs to better second-placed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s net run-rate of +0.740 in order to qualify for the, Balochistan suffered a huge blow when their skipper Ahmed Shehzad lost his off-stump on the first ball of the innings, playing across the line against Waqas.

Thereafter it was a matter of time before Federal Areas emerged victorious for the fourth straight game running as the rest of Balochistan batsmen recklessly threw caution to the wind until the entire team was dismissed for 206 in the 24th over.

And although Bismillah Khan struck a 23-ball 42 with six fours and one six, Rameez Raja slammed six boundaries in a 27-ball 38, Sohail Tanvir thrashed five fours and two sixes in scoring 42 from 22 balls and Anwar Ali blasted 34 off 26 balls with four fours and two sixes, it was not enough to prevent Balochistan making a bow after losing for the third time in four outings.

Man-of-the-match Waqas, the 30-year-old left-armer from Faisalabad, didn’t disappoint the small home crowd as chipped away with the wickets of Shehzad, Bismillah and Mohammad Nawaz (2) in his first spell before returning to mop the tail with three more victims.

His figures of six for 63 in 7.2 overs were good enough not only to usurp his personal best List ‘A’ analysis of 4-41 but also improved the previous best return in Pakistan Cup achieved by Pakistan strike bowler Mohammad Amir with 5-36 for Sindh against Islamabad in the inaugural edition of the one-day competition at the same venue in 2016.

Earlier, Sohaib Maqsood was the star performer with the bat after Federal Areas were put into bat. Leading the side in place of Kamran Akmal, who sat out the game, Sohaib bludgeoned a hurricane 92 from just 47 deliveries.

The Pakistan discard showed scant respect for the Balochistan bowling as he banged eight sixes and six fours while outscoring Hussain Talat during a blistering fourth-wicket partnership of 101 in only 54 deliveries.

Upfront Abid Ali continued his impressive form with a run-a-ball contribution of 73 that included 10 fours and a brace of sixes as the wicket-keeper/batsman added 111 for the second wicket with the promoted Raza Ali Dar, who compiled a 77-ball 70 with the aid of nine boundaries and one six.

Nawaz claimed four wickets for 62 runs in 10 overs, while young left-arm speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi took 2-36 in eight overs.

With inferior net run-rates it is highly unlikely that neither fourth-placed Punjab (-1.387) nor last-placed Sindh (-2.092) would create any hurdle for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the race to reach the final when they face each other in Friday’s last league-round encounter.

Scoreboard

FEDERAL AREAS:

Abid Ali lbw b Anwar 73
Sarmad Bhatti c Rameez b Shaheen 7
Raza Ali Dar b Nawaz 70
Sohaib Maqsood c Rameez b Nawaz 92
Hussain Talat c Sohail b Nawaz 15
Agha Salman lbw b Nawaz 3
Saad Nasim c and b Irfan 14
Waqas Maqsood run out 1
Ashiq Ali c Bismillah b Shaheen 13
Zafar Gohar c Anwar b Sohail 6
Shehzad Azam Rana not out 0

EXTRAS (B-4, W-5, NB-1) 10

TOTAL (all out, 47.2 overs) 304

FALL OF WKTS: 1-27, 2-138, 3-165, 4-266, 5-267, 6-272, 7-280, 8-289, 9-303.

BOWLING: Sohail Tanvir 7.2-1-50-1 (2w); Umar Gul 8-0-42-0; Mohammad Nawaz 10-1-62-4; Shaheen Shah Afridi 8-1-36-2 (1w); Mohammad Irfan 7-0-57-1 (1nb, 1w); Anwar Ali 5-1-29-1; Ahmed Shehzad 2-0-24-0 (1w).

BALOCHISTAN:

Ahmed Shehzad b Waqas 0
Bismillah Khan c Zafar b Waqas 42
Rizwan Hussain run out 8
Rameez Raja c Ashiq b Zafar 38
Mohammad Nawaz c Raza b Waqas 2
Khushdil Shah b Salman 6
Sohail Tanvir c sub b Ashiq 42
Anwar Ali lbw b Waqas 34
Umar Gul c Shehzad b Waqas 16
Mohammad Irfan b Waqas 1
Shaheen Shah Afridi not out 3

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-12, NB-1) 14

TOTAL (all out, 23.2 overs) 206

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-32, 3-70, 4-85, 5-98, 6-106, 7-159, 8-186, 9-200.

BOWLING: Waqas Maqsood 7.2-0-63-6 (3w); Shehzad Azam Rana 1-0-19-0 (1nb); Zafar Gohar 6-0-50-1 (2w); Agha Salman 3-0-24-1 (1w); Hussain Talat 2-0-20-0 (1w); Ashiq Ali 3-0-26-1; Sohaib Maqsood 1-0-3-0 (1w).

RESULT: Federal Areas won by 98 runs.

UMPIRES: Imtiaz Iqbal and Ahsan Raza.

TV UMPIRE: Shozab Raza.

MATCH REFEREE: Nadeem Arshad.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Waqas Maqsood.

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

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2018