KARACHI, March 8: Sialkot Stallions stormed into the final of the ABN-Amro One-day Gold League Cup after cruising to a five-wicket win over Rawalpindi Rams at the UBL Sports Complex here on Thursday.

The Stallions’ fifth victory in their last league match was set up by Qaiser Abbas who bludgeoned a 96-ball 95 with eight fours and three sixes. Qaiser and Mansoor Amjad (56 off 75 balls, five fours) added 130 for the second wicket as their team chased down a target of 245.

Earlier, the Rams made 244. The highlight of their innings was a hurricane 99 by Babar Naeem. His 86-ball knock contained no less than eight sixes and three gours.

Scoreboard

RAWALPINDI RAMS:

Mohammad Wasim c Qaiser b Sarfraz 5

Babar Naeem c Khalid b Rehman 99

Ali Sarfraz c Khalid b K. Dawood 21

Naveed Qureshi c Bilal b K. Dawood 6

Usman Saeed b Mansoor 13

Tahir Rauf c Sarfraz b Shahid 25

Sohail Tanvir lbw b Sarfraz 34

Munir Ansari not out 19

Yasim Murtaza run out 1

Najaf Shah run out 3

Akhtar Ayub c Sarfraz b K. Raza 15

EXTRAS (W-3) 3

TOTAL (all out, 50 overs) 244

FALL OF WKTS: 1-24, 2-98, 3-124, 4-133, 5-163, 6-181, 7-214, 8-221, 9-225.

BOWLING: Sarfraz Ahmed 10-0-42-2; Kashif Raza 9-0-52-1 (1w); Kashif Dawood 10-0-44-2; Mansoor Amjad 7-0-41-1; Qaiser Abbas 1-0-5-0; Abdur Rehman 10-1-42-1 (2w); Shahid Yousuf 3-0-18-1.

SIALKOT STALLIONS:

Qaiser Abbas lbw b Sohail 95

Atiq-ur-Rehman c Tahir b Najaf 7

Mansoor Amjad c Ali Sarfraz b Akhtar 56

Shahzad Malik lbw b Akhtar 1

Shahid Yousuf c Yasim b Munir 22

Bilal Hussain not out 44

Abdur Rehman not out 5

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-6, W-5, NB-5) 17

TOTAL (for five wkts, 44.1 overs) 247

FALL OF WKTS: 1-11, 2-141, 3-143, 4-186, 5-226.

DID NOT BAT: Hafiz Khalid, Kashif Raza, Sarfraz Ahmed, Kashif Dawood.

BOWLING: Akhtar Ayub 8-0-35-2 (1w); Najaf Shah 7-0-40-1 (2nb, 1w); Yasim Murtaza 10-0-53-0 (1w); Munir Ansari 7-0-49-1 (1w); Babar Naeem 5.1-0-34-0 (1w); Sohail Tanvir 7-0-29-1 (2nb).

RESULT: Sialkot Stallions won by five wickets.

UMPIRES: Salim Badar and Iftikhar Malik.

MATCH REFEREE: Taslim Arif.

OFFICIAL SCORER: Salman Hussain.