KARACHI: Backed by Ahsan Ali’s maiden one-day century, Sindh put up an astonishing batting performance against defending champions Federal Areas in Rawalpindi to post a record Pakistan Cup total on Saturday.

Vindicating captain Umar Gul’s decision to bat first at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, the Sindh batsmen simply tore into the Federal Areas bowling to amass 385-4 in 50 overs with Ahsan setting up the perfect platform while sharing a double-century partnership with Sahibzada Farhan.

The icing on Sindh’s cake was provided by Umar Amin and Hammad Azam as the duo with a fair knowledge of the conditions of their hometown ground smashed 126 runs off the last 9.5 overs with 87 of them coming from the final five overs.

The only time Federal Areas were in celebratory mood was very early in the game when the in-form Umar Siddique (10) was dismissed by left-arm paceman Zia-ul-Haq. Farhan was then joined by Ahsan in a second-wicket stand yielding 203 runs in just over 31 overs.

Ahsan — one of the unsung heroes of Quetta Gladiators’ Pakistan Super League title victory last month — outscored Farhan as he not only surpassed his previous best List A score of 73 but also brought up 1,000 in this format on his 36th appearance.

The 25-year-old right-hander from Karachi who has represented Pakistan at the U-19 level, became Test spinner Bilal Asif’s first of two victims after having reached 115 from 102 deliveries while striking 16 boundaries and two sixes until he was caught by Sohaib Maqsood.

The Sohaib-Bilal combination also got rid of Farhan for a 92-ball 83 which included a dozen boundaries.

World Cup hopeful Asif Ali — a huge favourite of Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur — again failed to get going despite coming to the crease with 14.4 overs still to go in the Sindh innings. The 27-year-old Faisalabad right-hander, who mustered only five against Balochistan on Thursday, was cleaned up by young paceman Sameen Gul for a run-a-ball 16.

At that point, Sindh were 259-4 in 40.1 overs and would have settled for a tally in the vicinity of 320-330 but Pakistan discards Umar Amin and Hammad both made a strong statement with each going past the half-century mark.

The left-handed Umar timed the ball sweetly to strike five sixes and four fours in his 46-ball 69 while Hammad was at his belligerent best as the all-rounder whacked 10 boundaries and hoisted three sixes in making 78 from just 35 balls.

Barring Mohammad Nawaz, 0-51 in 10 overs, the rest took a real hammering. Bilal’s two wickets cost 81 runs from 10 overs while the pace trio of Zia, Sameen and Waqas conceded 224 runs from their combined tally of 26 overs.

Sindh’s total bettered two similar scores of 378-6 in the last two Pakistan Cup editions. In 2017, Federal Areas had achieved the feat against Balochistan in Rawa­lpindi before Balochistan equalled that landmark against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at Faisalabad in 2018.

Scoreboard

SINDH:

Umar Siddique c Bilal b Zia 10
Sahibzada Farhan c Sohaib b Bilal 83
Ahsan Ali c Sohaib b Bilal 115
Umar Amin not out 69
Asif Ali b Sameen 16
Hammad Azam not out 78

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-8, NB-3) 14

TOTAL (for four wkts, 50 overs) 385

FALL OF WKTS: 1-11, 2-214, 3-218, 4-259.

DID NOT BAT: Aamir Yamin, Nauman Ali, Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Rahat Ali.

BOWLING: Zia-ul-Haq 9-0-80-1 (1nb, 3w); Sameen Gul 9-0-76-1 (2w); Mohammad Nawaz 10-0-51-0 (1w); Waqas Maqsood 8-0-68-0 (2nb, 1w); Bilal Asif 10-1-81-2 (1w); Israrullah 3-0-12-0; Saud Shakeel 1-0-14-0.

FEDERAL AREAS: Ahmed Shehzad, Israrullah, Sohaib Maqsood, Mohammad Rizwan, Rameez Raja, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Nawaz, Bilal Asif, Zia-ul-Haq, Waqas Maqsood, Sameen Gul.

UMPIRES: Mohammad Asif and Waleed Yaqub.

TV UMPIRE: Ahmed Shahab.

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Javed.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2019