KARACHI: Dethroned Pakistan Cup champions Federal Areas concluded their wretched campaign with a fourth successive defeat as Balochistan warmed up for the final with a 23-run triumph at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi on Wednesday.

Heading into their last league-round fixture on the back of three straight defeats, Federal Areas badly needed redemption but a startling collapse dented their hopes after Saud Shakeel and skipper Mohammad Rizwan were engaged in a stand of 87 to take their side to 173-3.

But once Saud (40 off 58 balls) and Rizwan (76 off 67, nine fours) emulated openers Ahmed Shehzad (46 off 36, seven boundaries) and Israrullah (31) by getting out when well set, Balochistan clawed back to grab the last six Federal Areas wickets for 48 runs, while consolidating their top spot in the standings on a better net run-rate after they and their opponents in Friday’s final, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, both ended with seven points each.

The target of 290 was never an issue after Sadaf Hussain had derailed Balochistan’s hopes of a 300-plus total with three strikes at the backend of the innings as the left-armer paceman finished with four wickets for 46 runs in seven overs.

Put into bat, Balochistan suffered a quick double blow with the dismissals of Zeeshan Ashraf (2) and Awais Zia (13) in the space of three deliveries. But from 15-2, Asad Shafiq and Ali Imran, who cashed in on the chance of batting up the order, shared a fine partnership of 151 but not before the captain had seen Mohammad Nawaz dropping a sitter off his own bowling.

Asad looked in sublime touch with customary deft strokes as he so often plays in Test cricket and was eyeing his 10th one-day century but upon reaching 72 from 83 balls (eight fours and one six), the diminutive right-hander was tragically run out by Bilal Asif.

Ali perished soon after when Ahmed Shehzad took a simple catch off Bilal to send the 21-year-old all-rounder back to the pavillion; Man-of-the-match Ali scored an 85-ball 77 that included five fours and four sixes.

The rest of the innings overwhelmingly belonged to Umar Akmal. Another century was there for the taking but Umar unselfishly chose to go after the bowling, and in doing so he was stumped when charged at Nawaz for another big hit.

Umar’s 77 came off just 45 balls with the aid of six fours and four sixes and also took him past Khushdil Shah’s tally of 314 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by five runs to the top batting chart in the this tournament with an average of 106.33 and a 140.52 strike rate.

The Balochistan tail didn’t wag much after Umar was gone at 266 as the last four wickets added only 23 runs.

The preliminary phase of the 50-over competition concludes on Thursday when the already-eliminated traditional rivals Punjab and Sindh take the field in a futile bid to salvage a little bit of pride.

Scoreboard

BALOCHISTAN:

Awais Zia c Rizwan b Khurram 13
Zeeshan Ashraf c Nihar b Sadaf 2
Asad Shafiq run out 72
Ali Imran c Shehzad b Bilal 77
Umar Akmal st Rizwan b Nawaz 77
Fawad Alam c Rizwan b Asad 19
Bismillah Khan c sub b Khurram 2
Amad Butt c Khurram b Sadaf 8
Umar Khan c sub b Sadaf 13
Taj Wali b Sadaf 0
Ghulam Mudassar not out 2

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-3) 4

TOTAL (all out, 49 overs) 289

FALL OF WKTS: 1-15, 2-15, 3-166, 4-174, 5-241, 6-258, 7-266, 8-279, 9-279.

BOWLING: Sadaf Hussain 7-0-46-4 (1w); Khurram Shehzad 9-0-42-2; Mohammad Nawaz 10-0-58-1 (1w); Asad Afridi 10-0-65-1; Bilal Asif 10-0-61-1 (1w); Israrullah 3-0-17-0.

FEDERAL AREAS:

Ahmed Shehzad c Amad b Ali 44
Israrullah b Asad 31
Saud Shakeel c Bismillah b Amad 40
Mohammad Rizwan c U. Akmal b U. Khan 76
Sohaib Maqsood c Ali b Mudassar 7
Nihar Mansoor c Zeeshan b Taj 22
Mohammad Nawaz c Ali b U. Khan 10
Asad Afridi c Bismillah b Taj 15
Bilal Asif b Amad 10
Sadaf Hussain b Amad 2
Khurram Shehzad not out 1

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-4, NB-1) 8

TOTAL (all out, 46.1 overs) 266

FALL OF WKTS: 1-76, 2-86, 3-173, 4-189, 5-218, 6-229, 7-238, 8-254, 9-264.

BOWLING: Ghulam Mudassar 8-0-48-1 (1w); Taj Wali 10-0-67-2 (1nb, 1w); Umar Khan 10-0-45-2 (1w); Ali Imran 4-0-23-1; Asad Shafiq 4-0-23-1; Fawad Alam 1-0-12-0; Amad Butt 9.1-0-45-3.

RESULT: Balochistan won by 23 runs.

UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza and Rashid Riaz.

TV UMPIRE: Shozab Raza.

MATCH REFEREE: Iqbal Sheikh.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Ali Imran.

THURSDAY’S FIXTURE: Punjab vs Sindh (2:00pm PST).

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2019