KARACHI, March 23: Faisalabad Wolves, inspired by incisive pace bowling from Samiullah Niazi, crushed Lahore Eagles by seven wickets to win the National One-day Regional Gold League Cricket Championship in a one-sided final at the National Stadium on Thursday.

Sami, a 24-year-old left-armer from Mianwali, claimed two wickets in his opening two overs to have the Eagles struggling from the onset once the Wolves skipper Misbahul Haq won the toss and chose to field first.

Sami, deserving recipient of the Man-of-the-Match award, grabbed two further wickets to finish with excellent figures of four for 25 as the Eagles mustered 244 all out.

The Wolves required 44.1 overs to achieve their prime objective of winning their first title of the season after twice finishing runners-up in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy (to Sialkot) and the Twenty20 Cup (to Sialkot Stallions).

Runs were always hard to come by in the initial stages as Sami used the white ball to telling effect by quickly disposing of openers Abid Ali and Jahangir Mirza for ducks with help from wicket-keeper Mohammad Salman.

At one point it seemed the Eagles would be lucky to put up enough runs on the board after they stumbled to 43 for four after 14 overs. Arsalan Mir (42 off 61 balls, two fours) and skipper Aamir Sajjad (32) then added 65 for the fifth wicket.

The Eagles owed their brief revival to a gutsy knock of 62 from Shahbaz Butt, who was last out. The wicket-keeper/batsman struck three towering sixes and two fours in his 52-ball innings.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal came for heavy punishment and went for 70 runs. But his 18 wickets in the tournament were enough to earn him the best bowler award.

In fact, the Wolves almost made a clean-sweep of individual prizes with Salman (14 dismissals) and Mohammad Hafeez (411 runs) being declared best wicket-keeper and best batsman, respectively. The best fielder prize was shared by the Eagles’ Abid Ali and Saeed Anwar of Multan Tigers for taking six catches apiece.

Hafeez, the Pakistan discard, masterminded the Wolves’ run-chase by dominating the opening partnership of 124 in 112 balls with the left-handed Imran Ali.

Hafeez stroked eight fours and one six on his way a 53-ball 67 while Imran unleashed 10 boundaries in making 73 off 75 deliveries.

The experienced duo of Misbah and Naved Latif, both ex-Test players, then completed the formality by putting on 93 in 112 balls for the unbroken fourth-wicket stand.

Naved ended the match with a cut to the third man fence. His 54 at almost run-a-ball included four fours and two sixes. Misbah, who later collected the winners’ trophy and the Rs250,000 cash prize, laced his 80-ball 44 with a solitary boundary.

Eagles captain Aamir Sajjad received Rs125,000 and the runners-up trophy.

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