Faysal Bank Cup: HBL post fighting total against NBP in final
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 (NBP). The match is being played at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore.
NBP Captain Fawad Alam won the toss and chose to field first. There was some rain in Lahore yesterday, which may have forced Fawad to take this decision, but the wicket looked absolutely flat.
HBL reached 273 runs in their allotted 50 overs, courtesy some good batting performances from their middle-order batsmen. Star openers Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar started the innings for HBL, but the team was put on back foot from the very first ball of
the match.
Imran pushed the ball to mid-off and tried to take a quick single, but the fielder placed there was too sharp and threw the ball direct at the stumps. Replays suggested that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193 was short of his crease and he had to take the long walk back to the pavilion
without scoring any run.
The innings was then stabilised by Taufeeq, who got some good support from Humayun Farhat. Both players complemented each other nicely as Humayun scored a quick 32 runs off 24 balls whereas Taufeeq rotated the strike from the other end.
However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Humayun-c63602 failed to capitalise on the start he got and was soon out. Taufeeq was then joined by veteran cricketer Saleem Elahi and the pair put together a solid 55-run partnership.
Taufeeq fell after scoring 35 steady runs and Saleem was joined by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shan-Masood-c89637. Both players gave yet another fifty run stand to their team and took the total to 166. Saleem was then run-out after constructing a brilliant innings of 63 runs from 90 balls.
HBL Captain Hasan Raza provided good support to Shan and the pair took the total to 239 before http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hasan-c61990 got out after scoring 24 runs off 28 balls. Shan scored 76 runs off 81 balls before he was dismissed and at that stage it looked like HBL would not be able
to reach a big total.
However, a cameo innings of 21 runs off just 10 balls from Kamran Hussain, ensured that the team reached 273 in their allotted 50 overs.
There were some mixed performances from the NBP bowlers. The attack bowlers took wickets but were expensive. On the other hand the spinners played a containing role and didn’t pick up wickets for their team.
Uzair-ul-Haq finished with figures of four for 55 in his nine overs. While, Mohammad Talha picked up two wickets for 70 runs in his spell of 10 overs.
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