KARACHI: Umar Akmal set alight the Pakistan Cup in Rawalpindi on Tuesday with a belligerent undefeated century while propelling Balochistan to a six-wicket rout of Punjab in the opening fixture of the tournament at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.

The 28-year-old, who has once against hit the headlines for wrong reasons after a late night out on the eve of the final ODI against Australia in Dubai, slammed a career-best 136 as Balochistan nonchalantly knocked off the 295-run target with four overs to be used.

Umar, appropriately enough, ended the match by striking discarded Pakistan paceman Ehsan Adil for successive boundaries shortly after eclipsing his previous best one-day score of 124 — for UBL against SNGPL at the UBL Sports Complex in January 2018 — during career’s sixth List ‘A’ century in 203 appearances.

Umar, who was the undisputed recipient of the man-of-the-match award, struck 14 fours and five sixes during his 108-ball innings.

Long-discarded Pakistan batsman Fawad Alam, who scored a 40-ball 37 with the help of three boundaries, partnered the dominant Umar in their unfinished partnership of 110 after another left-hander Awais Zia had set the platform in a fourth-stand of 120 with Umar.

Awais curbed his natural instincts to play the role of anchor. Having seen Zeeshan Ashraf (9), skipper Asad Shafiq (13) and Bismillah Khan (11) get out cheaply, Awais found the fence seven times and also hit a six while contributing 75 off 76 balls.

Punjab bowling — barring the spin of Mohammad Asghar and Iftikhar Ahmed — clearly lacked accuracy as well as penetration to trouble both Umar and Awais with Mohammad Sami, the former Pakistan speedster, being an obvious disappointment as the 38-uear-old returned figures of 0-73 in eight overs.

Earlier, Punjab made a fine recovery through Saad Ali and Sohail Tanvir after getting to their campaign in the 50-over tournament off rather sluggishly when they found themselves in real strife at 139-5 at the beginning of the 29th over.

Upfront Sami Aslam was bowled for a second-ball duck by the gangling ex-Pakistan left-armer Mohammad Irfan in the first over. Captain Kamran Akmal failed to take advantage of being dropped off Irfan behind the stumps by Bismillah.

The former Pakistan wicket-keeper was caught by Ali Imran in the very next over to List A debutant Haris Rauf his maiden wicket in this format. Khurram Manzoor, another forgotten man of Pakistan cricket, was on course for a big contribution but after reaching 36 off 49 balls (four fours and one six), the right-handed opener was brilliantly taken in the covers by a diving Asad Shafiq to leave Punjab at 74-3 after 14 overs.

Iftikhar Ahmed (55 off 57 balls, seven boundaries) and Saad then put on 63 before Iftikhar was dismissed by promising slow left-armer Umar Khan. Saad, who made his Pakistan debut during the recently-ended ODI series against world champions Australia, struck six boundaries in his 86-ball 73.

Fellow left-hander Sohail provided Saad decent support as the pair shared a seventh-wicket stand of 87. Sohail was eight out after striking five sixes and a brace of sixes in a brisk 59-ball knock of 68.

Haris and Umar claimed two wickets apiece.

Scoreboard

PUNJAB:

Khurram Manzoor c Asad b Ali 36
Sami Aslam b Irfan 0
Kamran Akmal c Ali b Haris 15
Iftikhar Ahmed c U. Akmal b U. Khan 54
Saad Ali run out 73
Hussain Talat c Irfan b Asad 0
Sohail Tanvir c Ali b Amad 68
Kashif Bhatti lbw b Haris 14
Mohammad Sami c Fawad b U. Khan 8
Ehsan Adil run out 4
Mohammad Asghar not out 0

EXTRAS (B-5, LB-3, W-14) 22

TOTAL (all out, 49.4 overs) 294

FALL OF WKTS: 1-1, 2-31, 4-74, 4-137, 5-139, 6-226, 7-243, 8-278, 9-287.

BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan 10-0-62-1 (3w); Haris Rauf 10-1-48-2 (3w); Amad Butt 10-0-73-1 (1w); Ali Imran 5-0-27-1; Umar Khan 9.4-0-54-2 (2w); Asad Shafiq 5-0-22-1.

BALOCHISTAN:

Awais Zia c Hussain b Asghar 75
Zeeshan Ashraf c Iftikhar b Sohail 9
Asad Shafiq lbw b Ehsan 13
Bismillah Khan lbw b Iftikhar 11
Umar Akmal not out 136
Fawad Alam not out 37

EXTRAS (LB-10, W-5) 15

TOTAL (for four wkts, 46 overs) 296

FALL OF WKTS: 1-22, 2-43, 3-66, 4-186.

DID NOT BAT: Ali Imran, Amad Butt, Umar Khan, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Irfan.

BOWLING: Sohail Tanvir 8-0-57-1 (1w); Ehsan Adil 9-0-56-1 (1w); Iftikhar Ahmed 10-0-39-1 (1w); Mohammad Sami 8-0-73-0 (2w); Mohammad Asghar 10-1-57-1; Hussain Talat 1-0-4-0.

RESULT: Balochistan won by six wickets.

UMPIRES: Ghaffar Kazmi and Qaiser Waheed.

TV UMPIRE: Faisal Afridi.

MATCH REFEREE: Iftikhar Ahmed.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Umar Akmal.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2019