The overhauled domestic cricket tournament, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy’s first winner is Central Punjab, which defeated Northern in the grand final at Karachi earlier today.
An impressive double-century by Umar Akmal for Central Punjab took them to 675/8 in response to Northern’s first innings total of 254.
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It proved to be a bad toss to win for Norther as captain, Nauman Ali opted to bat first. Faizan Riaz’s fighting hundred and Rohail Nazir’s 80 made sure that they gave their bowlers a chance of bowling out the opposition. However, Central Punjab’s batting proved to be a little too much for Northern as Azhar Ali smacked a century whereas Salman Butt, the Akmal brothers, Zafar Gohar and captain, Babar Azam, all chipped in to get a massive lead of 421.
An innings defeat loomed large over Northern camp, however, a defiant hundred by teenager Haider Ali and contributions from another teenager, Rohail Nazir and Ali Sarfaraz delayed the loss to the final session on Day 4. Punjab’s Bilal Asif bagged 8 wickets to end with figures of 31.3-1-112-8 to win it for his team.
Central Punjab bowled out the opposition for 405, winning the final by an innings and 16 runs.
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Umar Akmal and Bilal Asif shared the man of the match award, whereas the man of the tournament belonged to Zafar Gohar who took 38 wickets and scored 458 runs.
Here are the top 10 bowlers and batsmen from the tournament:
Top 10 Batsmen
| Player | Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imran Butt (Balochistan) | 9 | 17 | 2 | 934 | 214 | 62.26 | 4 | 3 |
| Kamran Akmal (Central Punjab) | 11 | 15 | 0 | 906 | 166 | 60.40 | 3 | 3 |
| Salman Butt (Central Punjab) | 10 | 15 | 3 | 901 | 237 | 75.08 | 3 | 3 |
| Sami Aslam (Southern Punjab) | 10 | 15 | 4 | 864 | 243* | 78.54 | 4 | 1 |
| Faizan Riaz (Northern) | 8 | 15 | 3 | 857 | 211 | 71.41 | 3 | 3 |
| Imran Farhat (Balochistan) | 10 | 17 | 2 | 819 | 137 | 54.60 | 3 | 3 |
| Ashfaq Ahmed (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) | 10 | 14 | 2 | 805 | 173 | 67.08 | 4 | 3 |
| Fawad Alam (Sindh) | 10 | 13 | 2 | 781 | 211 | 71.00 | 4 | 2 |
| Zeeshan Malik (Northern) | 8 | 15 | 0 | 780 | 216 | 52.00 | 1 | 6 |
| Umar Akmal (Central Punjab) | 8 | 12 | 0 | 754 | 218 | 62.83 | 2 | 4 |
Top 10 Bowlers
| Player | Mat | Inns | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | SR | 5 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nauman Ali (Northern (Pakistan) | 10 | 16 | 54 | 8/71 | 11/231 | 25.38 | 46.0 | 5 | 1 |
| Bilal Asif (Central Punjab) | 9 | 15 | 43 | 8/112 | 11/149 | 23.16 | 42.8 | 2 | 1 |
| Zafar Gohar (Central Punjab) | 11 | 19 | 38 | 7/79 | 11/133 | 36.76 | 68.5 | 1 | 1 |
| Mohammad Asghar (Balochistan) | 8 | 12 | 27 | 6/121 | 6/121 | 38.81 | 63.4 | 2 | 0 |
| Sajid Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) | 6 | 11 | 25 | 5/36 | 8/162 | 24.96 | 48.4 | 1 | 0 |
| Tabish Khan (Sindh) | 10 | 14 | 25 | 5/85 | 7/222 | 40.92 | 71.0 | 1 | 0 |
| Sohail Khan (Sindh) | 9 | 13 | 22 | 4/62 | 4/62 | 39.77 | 69.2 | 0 | 0 |
| Mohammad Irfan (Southern Punjab) | 8 | 12 | 22 | 5/131 | 5/133 | 43.04 | 81.5 | 2 | 0 |
| Yasir Shah (Balochistan) | 5 | 8 | 21 | 5/104 | 7/230 | 39.52 | 67.4 | 1 | 0 |
| Waqas Ahmed (Northern) | 8 | 13 | 21 | 6/109 | 7/144 | 39.57 | 70.0 | 1 | 0 |
What are your thoughts on Central Punjab’s title win? Let us know in the comments section.
Congratulation Teams of Quad Trophy.
Just by looking at top performers on this tournament I would pick the following:
Salman Butt,
Sami Aslam,
Faizan Riaz,
Fawad Alam,
Ashfaq Ahmed
Adnan Akmal, (yes he was a great performer as batsman/keeper)
Nauman Ali
Bilal Asif
Sajid Khan,
Hammad Azam
Tabish Khan
Sami Aslam should give chance in National team, his performance is great, Highest score with most not outs and avg. of 78 highest.
Congratulations on the Team the quad trophy.