HBL and NBP to contest the Final of One-day tournament (Departments)

Habib Bank crushed Wapda by 7 wickets to reach the final of the One-day tournament (departments). They meet National Bank in the ultimate showdown of 27th April, who reached the final after edging out ADBP in a thrilling encounter at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad.

Wapda, who were sitting pretty at the top of the points table at the start of the last round, went down in the match a bit too easily, thus, allowing the Bankers an easy stroll into the final, having 18 points against their name.

Put into bat on a turning wicket, Wapda could manage only 195 before their last wicket fell in the 48th over. Rizwan Malik, with a fine 64 off 89 and Rafatullah Mohmand, 39 off 40, were the only batsmen who could offer some resistance against HBL's spin attack led by Abdul Rehman.

The slightly built Abdul Rehman bowled tightly for his ten overs, grabbing 3 wickets for 28. He was supported by the skipper Akram Raza who bagged two scalps with his off-breaks. Younis Khan, bowling gentle leg breaks, required just three overs to trap two Wapda batsmen for 18 runs.

HBL's opening pair, led by the in-form Saleem Elahi, started off in a belligerent fashion, getting 81 off only 13 overs. After scoring consecutive centuries in the previous two matches, Elahi once again played a commanding knock of 79 off 75, hitting 12 fours and a six, to considerably ease the task for the remaining batsmen.

The winners reached the target in only 34 overs, with Imran Farhat and Younis Khan remaining not out on 45 (69 balls, 2 fours, 1six) and 13 (16 balls, 1 four), respectively.

Adil Nisar, the Wapda captain, employed seven bowlers in a bid to stop HBL's free flow of runs, but none of them could impress the batsmen. Waqas Ahmed, Tariq Aziz and Adil Nisar were the only successful bowlers, getting one wicket each for 29, 33 and 23, respectively.

The luckless Wapda finished the round robin league with 17 points, at par with PIA, yet both failed to advance due to their net run-rates being inferior to that of National Bank.

Requiring 229 for victory, NBP seemed out of reckoning after losing seven of their top batsmen for 179. However, they had plenty of overs in hand, owing to fireworks initiated by their openers Sajid Ali (50 off 36) and Imran Nazir (41 off 44).

Both these players played with utter command to take their side to 95 by only the 12th over. However, the dismissal of both in quick succession triggered a collapse in which they lost seven wickets with the addition of 84 runs.

It was then up to an unbeaten 55-run partnership between the left-handed Akhtar Sarfraz (44 off 80, 3 fours) and wicket keeper Kamran Akmal (31 off 26, 2 fours and 1 six), which earned NBP a much-needed win in the match.

In the third match, played at Sheikhupura Stadium, PIA overcame a resolute Khan Research Laboratories by 54 runs in a thrilling high-scoring encounter.

Chasing a mammoth 320 for victory, KRL put up a brave fight by posting 161 for 1 by the 25th over, thanks to a 138-run second wicket stand between Saeed Bin Nasir (54 off 74, 5 fours) and Naeem Akhtar (81 off 71, 10 fours, 2 sixes). But once both these batsmen were back into the pavilion, the KRL innings started to disintegrate, until the last man was out in the 49th over with 265 on the board.

Earlier, it was responsible knock of 90 by skipper Asif Mujtaba, aided by a fiery Moin Khan, which enabled PIA to post a towering 319 for 6 in their allotted overs.

Coming to the crease after the fall of three wickets for 58, Mujtaba grafted his innings with caution, adding 107 for the 4th wicket with Mahmood Hamid (45 off 55, 5 fours), before taking the score to 252 (44th over) along with Moin Khan.

Moin looked at his best as he slaughtered the bowlers with sheer disgust, getting an unconquered 82 off 62 ball, which contained 10 sweetly timed hits to the fence. The former captain was helped by cameos from Azhar Mahmood (21 off 15) and Shoaib Malik (16 off just 5), as he added 67 in the last 6 overs or so.

In the last match of this round, played at Gujranwala, Allied Bank surpassed Pakistan Customs by 17 runs, to earn their second victory of the tournament.

Put into bat first, ABL posted 258 on the board, thanks to 72 (72 balls, 4 fours) by Aamer Hanif and 60 (83 ball, 5 fours, 2 sixes) by Aaley Haider. These two got together at a critical juncture of 4 for 90, and went on to add a useful 108 for the fifth wicket, taking the score close to 200 by the 40th over. However, the remaining batsmen could add just about 60 in the last ten overs, as wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals.

Still the score looked competitive, more so when Customs lost both their openers for just 15 in the 5th over, a position from which they never recovered despite a valiant 101 (98 balls, 5 fours, 3 sixes) by the middle order batsman Naved Latif.

Naved's was an innings of utter maturity, as he almost single-handedly kept Customs' run-rate at par with what was required at the start of the innings. However, after his dismissal in the 45th over, the struggle just left Customs. They were eventually all out three overs later, still 17 runs shy of the opposition's total.

The final of the competition will be played at Sheikhupura on Friday, April 27.