KARACHI: Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) became the deserving first champions of the newly-instituted President’s Trophy Grade-I National Cricket Championship when they defeated Habib Bank Limited (HBL) by 75 runs at the National Stadium here on Friday.

SNGPL, the only team in the 10-department competition to remain undefeated throughout, sealed the title when pace bowler Asad Ali, armed with the second new ball, struck with the first delivery of the 81st over when he induced Fahad Masood to pull straight down Taufiq Umar’s throat at square leg.

Fahad had until then staged a forlorn attack with a few lusty blows — three boundaries and the solitary six of the HBL innings when he hoisted Mohammad Hafeez over the deep midwicket fence — in making 29 from 47 balls.

That final wicket fell around halfway point of the three-hour extended session, which is the norm of scheduling play to accommodate Friday’s prayers.

SNGPL were always tipped to win when the fifth and final day started with HBL on 169-6 and still 160 away from their 329-run target. Initially though HBL made excellent progress mainly because of Imran Farhat who was timing his strokes sweetly while Abdur Rehman flirted with danger when he played and missed on several occasions.

The overnight partnership between the two left-handers grew and so did the anxiety on Misbah-ul-Haq and his team until they got a lucky break from an error in judgment on part of senior umpire Saleem Badar who is due to retire at the end of the season. The unfortunate batsman was Imran who was crestfallen at being given out leg-before-wicket to Hafeez. The delivery was drifting and obviously heading past the leg stump on the angle since Hafeez was operating from the round-the-wicket line.

The seventh-wicket stand yielded 54 runs with most of the scoring done by Imran who batted for 99 minutes and laced his 71-ball 49 with eight boundaries.

Rehman (11 off 67 balls) was also out leg-before to Hafeez and looked surprised at the verdict as the ball thudded quite high on his left leg as he went back to play.

Umar Gul was ninth man dismissed after scoring 12 when was completely outfoxed by slow left-armer Imran Khalid.Misbah was adjudged the Man-of-the-Match ahead of several other candidates for his 85 — the highest individual score of the final among just five scores of 50-plus — and calm leadership that turned the tide in favour of SNGPL although Hafeez was also a serious contender for his seven wickets, including three for 62 in the second innings.

Misbah, who is also the Pakistan Test and ODI skipper, in his post-match comments said the teamwork contributed towards this title-clinching success.

“Obviously the credit goes to the entire team for such a great result. Throughout the season the lads had played as a unit and this unity showed in this final as well,” Misbah stated after collecting the winners’ trophy and cash prize of Rs500,000 from Wazir Ali Khoja, a member of Pakistan Cricket Board’s governing board.

HBL captain Younis Khan, who received the runners-up trophy and Rs250,000, said the turning point of the match was the inexplicable first-innings batting collapse suffered by his team.

“One can’t afford such a lapse. I just still don’t know how we capitulated on a pitch that was full of runs. It definitely cost us the match in the end. Had we scored 250 rather than 137 then the post-match script might have been totally different,” the former national captain remarked.

The only consolation for the bankers was Ahmed Shehzad who claimed the best fielder award for holding most catches — 18 in 10 matches — in the championship.

Sarfraz Ahmed celebrated his inclusion in the South Africa-bound national Test squad by taking the best wicket-keeper prize for most dismissals — 40 (36 catches, and four stumpings) in nine matches.

The recipients of the remaining two awards were not there in person. Former Pakistan captain and head coach of the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Rashid Latif accepted the best batsman prize on behalf of Umar Amin who amassed 767 runs in nine matches played by the PQA.

Atiq-ur-Rehman, the HBL coach, collected the best bowler prize as a proxy for Zulfiqar Babar who snared 62 wickets in nine games for the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

Scoreboard

SUI NORTHERN GAS PIPELINES LIMITED (1st Innings) 283 (Misbah-ul-Haq 85, Ali Waqas 83; Fahad Masood 5-67). HABIB BANK LIMITED (1st Innings) 137 (Ahmed Shehzad 79; Mohammad Hafeez 4-16). SUI NORTHERN GAS PIPELINES LIMITED (2nd Innings) 182 (Umar Akmal 76, Azhar Ali 31; Umar Gul 6-67). HABIB BANK LIMITED (2nd Innings, overnight 169-6): Shan Masood lbw b Imran Ali    21 Ahmed Shehzad c Taufiq b Samiullah    10 Younis Khan c Ali Waqas b Imran Khalid    25 Asad Shafiq c Ali Waqas b Hafeez    58 Usman Salahuddin lbw b Asad    0 Humayun Farhat c Azhar b Imran Ali    25 Imran Farhat lbw b Hafeez     49 Abdur Rehman lbw b Hafeez    11 Fahad Masood c Taufiq b Asad    29 Umar Gul b Imran Khalid    12 Ehsan Adil not out    6 EXTRAS (B-1, NB-6)    7 TOTAL (all out, 80.1 overs)    253 FALL OF WKTS: 1-15, 2-41, 3-84, 4-85, 5-136, 6-150, 7-204, 8-209, 9-242. BOWLING: Samiullah Khan Niazi 17-3-68-1 (2nb); Asad Ali 19.1-2-67-2; Mohammad Hafeez 22-5-62-3; Imran Ali 13-7-24-2; Imran Khalid 9-2-31-2. RESULT: Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited won by 75 runs. UMPIRES: Saleem Badar and Riazuddin. TV UMPIRE: Kamal Merchant. RESERVE UMPIRE: Khalid Mahmood Sr. MATCH REFEREE: Ilyas Khan. SCORERS: Mohammad Ahsan and Syed Imran Ali. MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Misbah-ul-Haq.