Khurram dazzles with ton in facile Punjab victory
KARACHI: A scintillating century by an animated Khurram Manzoor inspired Punjab to a clinical six-wicket rout of arch rivals in the inconsequential last preliminary-round fixture of the Pakistan Cup in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
The 32-year-old smashed 168 as Punjab made short work of a 296-run chase at the Pindi Cricket Stadium with no less than 70 deliveries to spare. Upon reaching his 24th List A hundred in 145 matches, Khurram made a strong gesture — apparently to the national selection committee headed by Inzamam-ul-Haq — by pointing to his bat and the number — 42 — on his shirt, in a reference to his time out of the Pakistan side whom he represented in March 2016.
With nothing at stake for either Punjab or Sindh since Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have already qualified for the final on Friday, Khurram chose this moment to send out an emphatic reminder to the powers-be that he’s still good enough to play at the international after scoring tons of runs in top domestic competitions organised by the PCB.
On Thursday, Khurram was in his element from the word go as he outscored all three of his partners during his stay at the crease. Kamran Akmal, the captain, made 26 in the first-wicket stand of 55.
Sami Aslam hit up a 50-ball 54 with five fours and one six while playing supporting role to Khurram in the second-wicket partnership of 139 before Iftikhar Ahmed (33 off 28 balls) helped Khurram add 82 for the third wicket.
Man-of-the-match Khurram, who negotiated only 116 balls and struck 23 boundaries and four sixes — including two in succession off seamer Hammad Azam — also became the first player to score 1,000 runs in Pakistan Cup when he reached 20. In 16 matches of the four editions he has amassed 1,148.
Khurram departed when just 10 runs were needed, falling to Aamir Yamin, who was lucky not to be no-balled for over-stepping as TV replays suggested he should have been.
Earlier, discarded Pakistan paceman Sohail Tanvir was largely instrumental in restricting Sindh from crossing the 300-run mark as the left-armer bowled economically to give away just 17 runs from 10 overs in which he scalped Sahibzada Farhan (20), Aamir Yamin (6) and Hammad Azam (42 off 31 balls, three sixes and one four).