KARACHI: Wapda infused some excitement into otherwise a lopsided first quarter-final of the Quaid-i-Azam One-day Cup to clinically send National Bank of Pakistan crashing at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday.
Bolstered by a line-up of experienced stalwarts in Mohammad Irfan and Wahab Riaz on the bowling front and Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt in the batting department, Wapda effectively were overwhelming favourites to storm into the last-four round even before the toss.
Salman chose to bowl first to take advantage of early morning moisture. And yet, NBP hung in well to survive the new-ball onslaught from the gangling presence of Irfan and his fellow Pakistan discard Ehsan Adil as openers Ahsan Ali (23 off 24 balls, two fours and one six) and Umar Siddique added 32.
Ahsan, the former Pakistan U-19 representative, was cleaned up by Ehsan but the left-handed Umar prospered to play an innings of real substance against the pace-cum-spin attack.
Wahab, who was a huge disappointment during the first Test against Australia in Dubai several weeks ago, needed a strong comeback to make up for his wicketless outing then. The left-armer created issues for the NBP batsmen with awkward bounce to pick up four wickets for 31 runs.
Umar fell to Wahab when he was taken behind the timbers by Kamran Akmal for 61 with his 72-ball effort embellished with 10 boundaries. Wahab also accounted for Danish Aziz as the left-hander was also caught behind for just eight.
Bilal Asif, one of the plus points in Pakistan’s 1-0 Test series against the Australians, tried in vain to ensure his side bat out their full quota but Wahab enticed him to sliced a catch down the throat of Ayaz Tasawwar at deep point for 36-ball 25 that featured one six and a four.
Wahab then promptly clean off NBP — who ironically were once Wahab’s former employers not long ago — for a modest 203 in 43 overs.
Irfan and off-spinning all-rounder Zahid Mansoor didn’t lack in their support to Wahab with a brace of wickets each.
Kamran Akmal then set about making light work of the target with a feisty 58 from just 61 deliveries with customary punchy drives, cuts and pulls highlight of his stroke-play as the pugnacious wicket-keeper punched nine boundaries before falling to ex-international and NBP skipper Hammad Azam.
Riffatullah Mohmand played second fiddle to Kamran during their opening partnership of inside the first 19 overs of the chase until he was bowled by spinning all-rounder Kamran Ghulam for a rather restrained 44 off 66 deliveries (three fours).
The rest of play was dominated by Salman Butt. The ex-Pakistan captain was in no hurry to complete the demolition job as he effortlessly moved to 70 from 86 balls with six fours embedded in his solid innings.
Mohammad Akhlaq partnered in his skipper in the unbroken stand of 72, while helping himself to a 48-ball 31 that included one four plus one six as Wapda were home with no less than 40 balls to spare.
Scoreboard
NBP:
Ahsan Ali b Ehsan 23
Umar Siddique c Kamran b Wahab 61
Rameez Raja lbw b Zahid 19
Akbar-ur-Rehman c and b Zahid 7
Kamran Ghulam c Khalid b Irfan 18
Danish Aziz c Kamran b Wahab 8
Hammad Azam c Riffat b Irfan 6
Bilal Asif c Ayaz b Wahab 25
Umaid Asif lbw b Zulfiqar 18
Mir Hamza not out 3
Ghulam Mudassar b Wahab 0
EXTRAS (LB-10, W-5) 15
TOTAL (all out, 43 overs) 203
FALL OF WKTS: 1-32, 2-63, 3-88, 4-122, 5-140, 6-152, 7-152, 8-191, 9-203.
BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan 10-0-49-2 (1w); Ehsan Adil 6-0-31-1; Zulfiqar Babar 9-1-34-1 (2w); Zahid Mansoor 6-0-30-2; Wahab Riaz 8-0-31-4 (2w); Khalid Usman 4-1-18-0.
WAPDA:
Kamran Akmal c Bilal b Hammad 58
Riffatullah Mohmand b Kamran 44
Salman Butt not out 70
Mohammad Akhlaq not out 31
EXTRAS (LB-2, W-2) 4
TOTAL (for two wkts, 43.2 overs) 207
FALL OF WKTS: 90, 2-125.
DID NOT BAT: Ayaz Tasawwar, Zahid Mansoor, Khalid Usman, Ehsan Adil, Wahab Riaz, Zulfiqar Bar, Mohammad Irfan.
BOWLING: Mir Hamza 6-0-37-0 (2w); Ghulam Mudassar 6-1-26-0; Umaid Asif 5-0-18-0; Bilal Asif 10-0-43-0; Hammad Azam 4-0-20-1; Kamran Ghulam 9-0-37-1; Danish Aziz 3-0-20-0; Ahsan Ali 0.2-0-4-0.
RESULT: Wapda won by eight wickets.
UMPIRES: Ghaffar Kazmi and Riazuddin.
TV UMPIRE: Qaiser Waheed.
MATCH REFEREE: Khalid Niazi.
SECOND QUARTER-FINAL: SSGCL vs HBL, Sunday.a
Published in Dawn, October 28th , 2018
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