PIA beat Redco to regain National one-day title

Lahore, Oct 10: PIA regained the National One-Day Cricket title, defeating Redco by a comfortable margin of 38 runs in the final at the Qadhafi Stadium on Sunday.

After being asked to bat first by the Redco side skipper Waqar Younis, the PIA team had hit a formidable total of 310 for four in the stipulated 50 overs.The Redco side could manage to score 272 for 9 in 50 overs and tasted defeat. Young Off-spinner Shoaib Malik did the most damage, claiming three wickets. He accounted for Hafeez Qureshi (20), Yasir Arafat (1) and Ahmar Saeed (5). At conclusion of the tournament, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ad hoc committee chairman awarded the Tissot Cup to captain of the PIA team.

But for a brief period when Bayazid Khan (67 off 72 balls with 4 fours) and Muhammad Naveed Qureshi (70 off 79 deliveries with 4 fours and a six) added 97 runs for the fourth wicket partnership off 104 balls, the Redco team never looked like fighting to overhaul the big PIA total. Both displayed their repertoire of strokes. Mushtaq Ahmad remained not out at 33 (consuming 24 balls).

Solid knocks by Zahid Fazal, Ghulam Ali and Rizwan-uz-Zaman and exhilarating batting by Wasim Akram and Moin Khan in closing stages of the innings helped the PIA team plunder 310 for four in its quota of 50 overs. Of course, shoddy fielding, dropped catches and missed easy opportunities of run out also added to the miseries of the Redco team.

On an easy-paced pitch the Redco captain Waqar Younis won the toss and repeated the decision to put in the PIA team to bat first. However, it badly backfired. The openers Rizwana-uz-Zaman and Ghulam Ali batted confidently to score 77 off 119 deliveries in 93 minutes for the first-wicket partnership. At that total, Rizwan was caught by young paceman Waqas Ahmad off his own bowling. Rizwan hit three boundaries in his knock of 42.

Ghulam Ali and Zahid Fazal were involved in one of the few finest partnerships of the tournament. Both added 112 runs off 121 balls in 81 minutes to get an imposing total of 189. Ghulam Ali tried to play a cross-bat shot off Mushtaq Ahmad but was completely beaten. Ghulam Ali scored 70 valuable runs off 103 balls and hit seven elegant boundaries.

Yousuf Youhana (13 off 11 balls) was unfortunately run out. Zahid Fazal drove back a delivery from Waqar Younis and Yousuf charged out of his crease for a single but Waqar smartly deflected the ball on to the stumps without giving him the chance to regain his crease.

The best knock of the day was hit by Zahid Fazal. He thrashed all the bowlers at will in his score of 85. Zahid played 93 deliveries and hit a big six and seven fours. He was out when well set for his century. Moin Khan and Wasim Akram plundered runs in cavalier fashion to add 74 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket partnership in only 28 minutes. Moin Khan lifted a delivery from Waqar Younis out of the ground and also hit three boundaries in his knock of 34 scored off 20 balls. Wasim Akram's 32 included five fours. Both entertained a holiday crowd of around 5,000 fans.