KARACHI: Northern put up a brilliant teamwork to become the inaugural champions of the Audionic presents Zong 4G National T20 Cup on Thursday after decimating Balochistan by 52 runs in a lopsided final at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.

The new-look tournament, featuring the six regional outfits, was fittingly won by the best side as the Imad Wasim-led Northern — who had topped the league phase with four victories — completed a grand double a few hours after their second strings team had defeated Southern Punjab in the Second XI title-decider in Karachi.

Going by the trend so often observed during the competition, Balochistan skipper Haris Sohail preferred to chase rather than set a target for Northern, taking into account the dew factor once the lights are switched on. But Haris was certainly left to rue his decision as the pitch became difficult for his batsmen in the second half of the evening.

Taking advantage of fine batting conditions early on, Umar Amin and Ali Imran built a good foundation before Ali (16 off 15 balls) was dismissed by leg-spinner Yasir Shah with the score on 46 in the last over of the Powerplay.

Umar, however, continued his excellent form after having got starts in all previous games in the event barring the last league fixture against Balochistan on Tuesday when he fell without scoring.

The long-discarded Pakistan left-hander struck some elegant strokes in what was an splendid innings in the given circumstances. Shortly after bringing up his 19th 50-plus in T20 cricket, Umar, who was the deserving recipient of the man-of-the-match award, was caught by Imran Farhat off Hussain Talat for 60 with the team score being 95 — midway through the 12th over — after he and Sohail Akhtar (14) had put on 49.

Umar’s 45-ball knock — by far the most significant individual score of the entire final — was embedded with six fours and three sixes. After his departure, Balochistan bounced back to claim four wickets in quick successions during a period where Northern mustered mere 14 runs. Among the victims were Asif Ali (10) and Imad for a first-ball duck.

Northern then made a grand comeback thanks to the combined efforts of all-rounders Mohammad Nawaz (31 off 25 balls, two sixes and one four) and Shadab Khan (25 off 15, two boundaries) as the pair stitched together an unfinished partnership of 58 in 35 balls that their team to a highly-competitive tally of 167-5.

Amad and Hussain were pick of the Balochistan bowling with two wickets apiece. But when it was Balochistan’s turn at the crease they were jolted by the vastly-experienced figure of Sohail Tanvir. The former Pakistan left-arm paceman induced Imam-ul-Haq (9) to offer Imad a simple catch at mid-on and then forced Bismillah Khan to play his first ball onto his stumps as Balochistan slid to 14-2.

The let-handed duo of Awais Zia (28 off 27, five boundaries) and Farhat — who was evening’s second highest run-getter with a 26-ball 32 (five fours) — led a partial recovery in a stand of 44 but Northern didn’t allow either of them to break free as Imad constantly switched his bowlers at both ends.

As each over passed by the asking rate kept climbing to a level that became intolerable for Balochistan as their batsmen became increasingly frustrated at their lack of full-blooded aggression. The desperation led to indiscretion and none was more glaring than the demise of Haris, who tried in vain to smash Shadab out of Faisalabad but found himself stranded yards out, leaving the tournament’s best wicket-keeper Rohail Nazir with ample time to whip off the bails.

Almost 24 hours after his heroics in the semi-final win against Southern Punjab, Amad Butt failed to repeat the act as the all-rounder was tragically run out for 13 just before Balochistan folded up for 115 in 18.2 overs.

Sohail, who won the best bowler award for his tournament haul of 14 wickets, returned to clean up Umar Gul for a golden duck before ending with 3-27.

Shadab and Nawaz starred with two wickets each, while Mohammad Amir and Imad bagged one wicket apiece before Northern were presented with the winners’ cheque of Rs5 million.

Balochistan received Rs2.5 million and had some consolation when Awais sealed the best batsman prize for his 276 runs, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa captain Mohammad Rizwan was named player-of-the-tournament (215 runs and six dismissals behind the stumps).

Northern, meanwhile, stunned Southern Punjab by an impressive margin of 40 runs to clinch the Second XI trophy at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Southern Punjab had previously enjoyed a remarkable unbeaten streak by winning all five of their league-round fixtures before defeating Central Punjab in Wednesday’s semi-final. But a day later they crumbled in the final as they failed to reach a daunting target of 197.

After bright first-wicket stand of 85 inside the opening nine overs between the in-form Zeeshan Ashraf (61 off 26 balls, eight fours and three sixes) and ex-Pakistan opener Mukhtar Ahmed (22).

But the dismissal of Zeeshan — adjudged best batsman of the vent for his tally of 395 runs — triggered a collapse as Southern Punjab lost their remaining nine wickets for the addition of only 70 further runs with leg-spinner Usama Mir grabbing 3-28 in four overs.

Earlier, Northern amassed 196-7 after being put into bat by Naved Yasin. Shoaib Ahmed Minhas was the top-scorer with a 45-ball knock of 68 (four fours and three sixes) but it was wicket-keeper Jamal Anwar who provided the finishing touch with a blazing 21-ball 40 not out (five boundaries and one six) that fetched him the man-of-the-match award.

Northern’s Nauman Ali (160 runs and 10 wickets) was declared player-of-the-tournament while bowler-of-the-tournament prize was shared by Central Punjab’s Raza Ali Dar and Mohammad Imran of Sothern Punjab with both claiming 13 wickets apiece. Similarly, the wicket-keeper award was split between Southern Punjab’s Maqbool Ahmed and Mohammad Ikhlaq of Central Punjab (seven dismissals each).

Thursday’s result:

Second XI — National Stadium, Karachi:

Final: Northern beat Southern Punjab by 40 runs.

NORTHERN 196-7 in 20 overs (Shoaib Ahmed Minhas 68, Jamal Anwar 40, Zeeshan Malik 34, Shehzad Azam Rana 22 not out; Zulfiqar Babar 3-28, Mohammad Imran 2-44); SOUTHERN PUNJAB 156 in 17.5 overs (Zeeshan Ashraf 61, Maqbool Ahmed 26, Mukhtar Ahmed 22; Usama Mir 3-28, Salman Irshad 2-13, Nauman Ali 2-27).

Scoreboard

NORTHERN:

Umar Amin c Imran b Hussain 60
Ali Imran c Imran b Yasir 16
Sohail Akhtar c Awais b Amad 14
Asif Ali c Bismillah b Hussain 10
Mohammad Nawaz not out 31
Imad Wasim c Awais b Amad 0
Shadab Khan not out 25

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-7, NB-2) 11 TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs) 167

FALL OF WKTS: 1-46, 2-95, 3-99, 4-108, 5-109

DID NOT BAT: Rohail Nazir, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Amir, Haris Rauf.

BOWLING: Umar Gul 4-0-45-0 (1nb, 2w); Akif Javed 4-0-34-0 (1nb, 3w); Ali Shafiq 2-0-14-0; Yasir Shah 3-0-28-1; Amad Butt 4-0-19-2; Hussain Talat 3-0-25-2.

BALOCHISTAN:

Imam-ul-Haq c Imad b Sohail 9
Awais Zia c and b Imad 28
Bismillah Khan b Sohail 0
Imran Farhat b Shadab 32
Haris Sohail st Rohail b Shadab 5
Hussain Talat c Sohail b Amir 11
Amad Butt run out 13
Yasir Shah c Asif b Nawaz 9
Umar Gul b Sohail 0
Ali Shafiq not out 2
Akif Javed b Nawaz 0

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-2, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (all out, 18.2 overs) 115

FALL OF WKTS: 1-14, 2-14, 3-58, 4-79, 5-82, 6-103, 7-105, 8-108, 9-115.

BOWLING: Sohail Tanvir 4-0-27-3; Mohammad Amir 3-0-19-1; Haris Rauf 2-0-11-0 (1nb, 1w); Imad Wasim 3-0-22-1 (1w); Shadab Khan 4-0-23-2; Mohammad Nawaz 2.2-0-10-2.

RESULT: Northern won by 52 runs.

UMPIRES: Asif Yaqoob and Ahmed Shadab.

TV UMPIRE: Zameer Haider.

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Javed.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Umar Amin.

MAN-OF-THE-TOURNAMENT: Mohammad Rizwan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2019