NBP, KRL share President’s Cup

KARACHI: National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) shared the title when the final of the President’s Cup One-day could not be completed because of fog at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday.

After a major part of the day was wasted because of the fog, the show was reduced to 20 overs a side.

NBP, who were invited to bat first, had reached 59-5 in 11.4 overs when bad light forced the umpires to stop the match at 2:38pm. As a result, the two teams were declared joint winners.

Test discard Nasir Jamshed scored 34-ball 32 not out, which included four fours. Sohaib Maqsood (4), Fawad Alam (3), Kamran Akmal (1), Mohammad Nawaz (1) and Umar Waheed (0) failed to impress. As many as 16 runs came in extras. Hammad Azam remained not out on two.

Sialkot-born pacer Umaid Asif picked 2-10 in three overs. Left-arm Test pacer Mohammad Irfan, who clean bowled Kamran, captured 1-3 in three overs. Nayyer Abbas (1-5) and Zain Abbas (1-11) were the other successful bowlers.

NBP coach Mohammad Javed was not happy with the result. “It’s really an unfortunate end to the event,” he told ‘The News’ from Lahore. “Pakistan team players were also playing in the game. And if you spend so much money then the final should have been played in a proper way,” he said.

He said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would have to make changes in the rules if it wanted to see good cricket. “I think we should play proper cricket. You know final is the beauty of any event. The PCB will have to think seriously about it and make some changes so as to prevent what happened today in future,” said Javed, a former first-class cricketer.

“Had there been an option of a reserve day or an option to play it after two or three days under clear skies, it could have been a splendid show,” he said.

He said that there should have been an option of changing the venue. “Due to technology one can learn about the weather ten or 15 days in advance. There should have been an option to change the venue as per the weather forecast. If the PCB is unable to make the required amendments to its rules, it will continue to damage our cricket and the ultimate sufferers will be the youngsters,” Javed said.

The result also disappointed KRL manager Rashid Iqbal. “It’s natural; one cannot do anything with the weather. But there should have been a reserve day for it so that each team could have got a fair chance,” Rashid told this correspondent.

This was the first time KRL were playing for a major title. They had won grade II title before. Founded in 1991-92, KRL appeared in Grade-II in that year and made their first-class debut in 1998.

Both the teams were handed over Rs750,000 each. Besides, Rs50,000 each was given to left-handed international Fawad Alam (NBP, best batsman, 435 runs), Ehsan Adil (HBL, best bowler, 24 wickets) and Saeed Anwar Junior (KRL, best all-rounder, 306 runs, 13 wickets).

Aleem Dar and Ahsan Raza supervised the match.