KARACHI, Dec 24: All hypes of a fitting finale to the inaugural RBS Pentangular Cup one-day cricket tournament were put to rest as Punjab Stallions nonchalantly eased to a crushing eight-wicket win over Federal Areas Leopards at the National Stadium here on Wednesday.
What should have been an absorbing tussle for supremacy in the final, turned out be a one-sided affair as Wahab Riaz regained the rhythm that had deserted him in the previous games of the competition to bag five wickets for 44 runs in a performance that later earned him the Rs50,000 Man-of-the-Match award.
A target of 219 was never going to trouble the Stallions, and so it proved when Azhar Ali scored the wining runs to ensure his unbeaten team got richer by Rs1.5 million, the prize-money dished by the generous sponsors for the champions, when the match ended with 49 balls to spare.
Wahab, as he admitted later, went back to the basics after taking just a single wicket in the previous three matches. The left-arm paceman never allowed the opposing batsmen to settle down after coming into the attack late in the innings.
He started with the wicket of Usman Saeed who had shaped up well after the Leopards, who were put in to bat, had slumped to 67 for three in the 17th over when Afaq Raheem chopped Abdur Rehman’s first delivery of the match onto his off stump.Until that moment the 57-run partnership between Usman (33 off 48 balls, one six and one four) and Umar Amin looked like taking the Leopards towards a total that would have challenged the Stallions more seriously.
But Umar, the top-scorer with an attractive 77 that included six boundaries, never really got the support he was yearning for as wickets tumbled at an alarming rate at the other end. Opener Babar Naeem was a prime example as he wasted a good opportunity to capitalise after blasting his way to 39 off 44 deliveries (three fours and one six).
Mohammad Salman, the ‘guest’ wicket-keeper/batsman from Faisalabad, made some sort of a contribution (30 off 38 balls, two boundaries) during the fifth-wicket stand of 47 with the admirable Umar.
Umar, who can easily be ranked as the batsman of the tournament although Stallions skipper Shoaib Malik got the Rs50,000 batting award for his 262 runs, hardly appeared in trouble the moment he got off the mark with a David Gower-like punch off the back foot to the point fence.
The 20-year-old left-hander, product of Rawalpindi’s Gul Cricket Club, fought on bravely until shortage of partners forced him to take risks. One such attempt ended his fine 104-ball knock when he was adjudged leg before wicket by umpire Kamal Merchant. TV replays suggested the verdict may have been a bit harsh as the delivery from Mohammad Talha appeared to be heading down the leg side.Kamal, who was supposed to be the TV umpire, took up Mian Aslam’s place as the field umpire in a development that took place late on Tuesday. Poor Aslam was relegated to monitor TV replays in what is going to be final season for the former Test official.
Sohail Tanvir, the Pakistan all-rounder from whose bat much was anticipated throughout the event but never got going, fell for a duck for the second match running.
Like Wahab, Nasir Jamshed redeemed himself after his early failures. Unfortunately, when the left-handed opener had a century in sight, he was run out after finding himself at the same end as his partner Azhar. Nevertheless, Nasir (63 off 56 balls, eight fours) had set up the game for the Stallions as the first wicket produced 106 runs off 118 balls.
Azhar (87 off 126 balls, seven fours and one six) and Salman Butt (51 off 57 balls, five fours) then added 91 without any bother.
A disappointing Leopards skipper Shoaib Akhtar collected the runners-up award of Rs1 million on behalf of his team. Other individual awards, went to Talha (best bowler with 12 wickets), his team-mate Mansoor Amjad (best fielder, six catches) and the NWFP Panthers’ Zulfiqar Jan (best wicket-keeper with seven dismissals, including one stumping).
Scoreboard
FEDERAL AREAS LEOPARDS:
Raheel Majeed c Kamran b Sarfraz 4
Babar Naeem c Sarfraz b Malik 39
Umar Amin lbw b Wahab 77
Afaq Raheem b Abdur Rehman 1
Usman Saeed c Kamran b Wahab 33
Mohammad Salman c Kamran b Wahab 30
Yasir Arafat c Mansoor b Talha 10
Sohail Tanvir c Umar b Wahab 0
Shoaib Akhtar lbw b Talha 3
Rao Iftikhar C Salman b Wahab 3
Saeed Ajmal not out 5
EXTRAS (LB-2, W-10, NB-1) 13
TOTAL (all out, 48.1 overs) 218
FALL OF WKTS: 1-19, 2-65, 3-67, 4-124, 5-171, 6-196, 7-198, 8-207, 9-209.
BOWLING: Sarfraz Ahmed 10-0-49-1 (1w); Mohammad Talha 9-0-43-2 (1nb, 6w);
Shoaib Malik 8-1-28-1 (1w); Abdur Rehman 10-1-37-1; Wahab Riaz 9.1-0-44-5 (2w); Mansoor Amjad 2-0-15-0.
PUNJAB STALLIONS:
Nasir Jamshed run out 63
Azhar Ali not out 87
Salman Butt c Salman b Saeed 51
Umar Akmal not out 9
EXTRAS (LB-3, W-5, NB-1) 9
TOTAL (for two wkts, 41.5 overs) 219
FALL OF WKTS: 1-106, 2-197.
DID NOT BAT: Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Mansoor Amjad, Abdur Rehman, Sarfraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Talha.
BOWLING: Shoaib Akhtar 6-0-37-0 (2w); Sohail Tanvir 8-1-36-0 (1nb, 2w); Rao Iftikhar 7-0-40-0; Yasir Arafat 6-0-22-0; Saeed Ajmal 9.5-0-55-1 (1w); Babar Naeem 2-0-13-0; Raheel Majeed 3-0-13-0.
RESULT: Punjab Stallions won by eight wickets.
UMPIRES: Akram Raza and Kamal Merchant.
TV UMPIRE: Mian Aslam.
MATCH REFEREE: Ilyas Khan.
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Wahab Riaz.