Central Punjab has been crowned the 2022/23 Pakistan Cup champions after they defeated Balochistan in the final of the competition. Central Punjab won the match by 50 runs after defending a low total of 255 runs.
Tayyab Tahir and Ahmed Shehzad were the stars of the show for Central Punjab as they scored scintillating half-centuries, before a mini-collapse at the backend of the innings restricted them to 254/10 in their innings.
Balochistan was unable to get control of the game, despite a magnificent half-century by Bismillah Khan. Pacer Ali Shafiq picked up three wickets while Mohammad Ali and Zafar Gohar picked up two wickets each to dismiss Balochistan for 204.
This was Central Punjab’s first-ever Pakistan Cup trophy after the domestic system revamp a few years ago. Since the revamp, KPK had won the title twice while Balochistan won the competition the previous year.
🏆 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 🏆
Central Punjab beat Balochistan to win the #PakistanCup final ✨#CPvBAL pic.twitter.com/RJiLbn8syA
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) January 2, 2023
Central Punjab was the team to beat throughout the competition as they finished as the league leaders with 7 wins out of their 10 group stage matches. They went on to defeat Southern Punjab in the semi-final before steamrolling past Balochistan in the final.
Usama Mir and Tayyab Tahir were the star performers for the side as they finished among the top run-scorers and highest wicket-takers in the competition. Mir finished as the leading wicket-taker in the competition with 28 wickets while Tayyab scored 573 runs to finish as the second-highest run-scorer.
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