KARACHI, Jan 11: Inspired by Misbah-ul-Haq’s brilliant century, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) lifted the prestigious Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship title for the first time after the final against Habib Bank Limited (HBL) ended in a tame draw at the National Stadium here on Friday.

SNGPL, who are in their sixth season of first-class cricket, thus clinched the 50th edition of the oldest domestic tournament by virtue of first-innings lead of 159 runs. With the second day lost to rain and wet conditions, it was always difficult to foresee an outright result being achieved.

The fifth and final day belonged to Misbah, who hammered a majestic 161 as SNGPL declared their second innings at 304-9 on the stroke of lunch.

Set an impossible target of 464 in a maximum of 39 overs, HBL batted out almost 30 overs to make 166-1 in their second innings before the match was mutually called off at the dismissal of all-rounder Kamran Hussain.

Kamran, who had a good outing with both bat and the ball, gave national selectors a timely nudge with a 99-ball 89 that included 15 boundaries. The all-rounder took eight wickets in the final besides scoring 127 runs.

Riffatullah Mohmand finished 65 not out, a knock that had 10 fours and a six.

But it was Misbah who stole the show. Resuming the day at 71 with his side at 148-4, the Pakistan star continued his golden touch.

Khurram Shahzad, who helped Misbah add 107 for the fifth wicket, fell to Test slow left-armer Abdul Rehman’s arm delivery for 40. But the unflappable Misbah marched on merrily as he completed his 28th first-class century by glancing Rehman for a couple.

Having achieved the milestone in nearly four hours, Misbah then changed the tempo by going on the attack and arrived at 150 when swept Rehman high into the stands for a huge six.

The 33-year-old right-hander, who scored 64 in the first innings, struck Kamran for a straight six before the bowler finally had his revenge when Misbah, who was seventh out, edged one to wicket-keeper Humayun Farhat. His grand 272-ball innings contained 23 fours and that brace of sixes.

The tail wagged a bit with Asad Ali taking 22 runs in one Kamran over before skipper Mohammad Hafeez shut the door on HBL by closing the innings.

A naturally delighted Hafeez paid tribute to his champion outfit by saying that the team effort was the recipe of their success.

“Without a shadow of doubt it was a collective effort on part of the boys. Misbah was great but others also contributed when the chips were down,” he told Dawn shortly after collecting the winners’ trophy and a record purse of Rs1,000,000 from Dr Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman.

Hafeez termed the first day as the turning point.

“In the given conditions any team would have folded inside three hours in the conditions that were ideal for seam bowling. But we applied ourselves to bat through the day.”Shahid Afridi, the HBL captain, agreed that the opening day was crucial. “To be fair we didn’t bowl as well as we should have and didn’t make most of the conditions. All credit to SNGPL for doing well in difficult conditions on the first day.

“The lost of second day was crucial as well. I think the final should always be played over five days. There is no point in deciding the champions just on the basis of lead on the first innings,” the flamboyant Pakistan all-rounder commented after collecting the runners-up prize money of Rs500,000.

ABN-AMRO Bank, the chief sponsor of Pakistan domestic cricket, had put up a total prize-money of Rs1.75 million for the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy.

Apart from the cash awards for the finalists, five individual prizes of Rs50,000 each were given to the best performers in the championship.

National Bank’s Naumanullah was declared the best batsman for scoring 949 runs (ave 63.26) in the tournament. SSGC’s paceman Sohail Khan made a fairytale debut in first-class cricket this season by picking up the highest number of wickets (65 at 18.43 in nine games).

KRL’s Zulfiqar Jan finished as the championship’s leading wicket-keeper with 46 dismissals (all caught) while Hafeez took 18 catches to claim the best fielder award and Misbah was the obvious Man-of-the-Match in the final.

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