Kamran blazes HBL, UBL wins in Departmental ODI cup

In the first match of the day, HBL won the toss and elected to bat first. Ahmed Shahzad and Salman Afridi opened from HBL but Afridi was unable to open his account and get back to pavilion on not. Bankers lost their second wicket on 17 runs but then Ahmad Shahzad and new comer Imran Farhat rotated the strike and added 165 runs in third wicket partnership. Shahzad remained the top scorer from the bankers with 110 runs while Imran Farhat played innings of 63 runs. Zohaib Khan 59 and Rameez Aziz 43 from down the order helped HBL to set target of 314 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Zahid Mansoor was pick of the bowlers as he picked up 4 wickets while Muhammad Irfan and Waqas Maqsood got 2 wickets each from WAPDA.

In reply, blistering innings of former Pakistani wicketkeeper batsman put WAPDA on the track of winning the match. Kamran Akmal scored 200 runs in just 148 balls. Akmal is only the country’s third batsman to score a double hundred in a list-A match and only the second batsman to score fastest double ton.

He is the third Pakistani batsman after Mohammad Ali and Khalid Latif to score a double ton in list-A match. Mohammad Ali scored 207 for Pakistan Customs in Sialkot against DHA while Khalid scored an unbeaten 204 for Karachi against Quetta in 2009. Kamran is also the second quickest Pakistani to complete a double century in a list-A match.

Akmal scored 27 boundaries and four huge sixes in his innings. The other opening batsman Salman Butt also scored a half century and he got out on 59 runs. Aamer Sajjad 40 not out and Shoaib Laghari 10 not out completed the chase in 45.1 overs and WAPDA won the match by 7 wickets. Muhammad Bilal Shah picked up 2 while Zohaib Khan got 1 wicket from HBL.

The second match of the day was played between SSGC and UBL and after winning the toss, SSGC put bankers to bat first. Shan Masood and Umar Siddiq were the openers from UBL but both the openers moved back to pavilion when the score was 48 then Umar Akmal 81 and Ashiq Ali 41 not out help UBL to set a target of 266 runs for SSGC. Adnan Ghaus, Kashif Bhatti and Uasma Mir got 2 wickets each while Ahmed Jamal and Fawad Alam picked up 1 wicket apiece.

In reply to 266, Sami Aslam and Umar Amin provide the opening stand of 66 runs. Amin scored 36 while Sami was picked up by Ashiq Ali on 88 runs. Fawad Alam was the only one after the opener who resisted against the Bankers but he was run out on 47 runs and after that none of the batsman stand in front of spin attack of UBL and the innings of SSGC was wrapped up on 212 runs in 46.1 over. 8 SSGC batsmen did not move to double figures while 3 of them were unable to open their account. Mohammad Asghar picked up 4 while Sohaib Maqsood got 2 and Sadaif Mehdi, Ashiq Ali got 1 wicket each for UBL.