On the last day of the training camp in Lahore, a 40 over practise match was held between the NCA Panthers and the NCA Tigers. In the previous practise game a scintillating knock by Umar Akmal was overshadowed by a match winning century from Azhar Ali. Today however both Umar Akmal and Azhar Ali were playing for the Panthers.

The NCA Panthers batted first with Azhar Ali and Sharjeel Khan opening the batting against 6’10 left armer Mohammad Irfan and Uzair Ul Haq who’d taken 4 wickets in the last game. Azhar carried on where he’d left off in the previous match scoring 95 not out off just 73 balls, a knock that was laced with 14 boundaries. His opening partner wasnt so lucky and fell to Irfan with less than a dozen runs to his name.

Rameez Alam is a name that’s causing quite a stir in Pakistan cricketing circles and he walked in at number 3 to join Azhar in the middle. Between them they put on a great partnership before Alam was dismissed lbw to Tabish Khan. This brought Umar Akmal to the crease but after his knock in the previous game, he was perhaps a little too aggressive and was removed by Tabish Khan after scoring just 11 runs from only 5 balls.

The only economical bowlers for the NCA Tigers were Mohammad Irfan and Babar Azam who also took 5 wickets between them. Tabish also took 3 wickets but they came at a high economy. The Panthers were all out for 287 runs, setting the Tigers a target of 288 in 40 overs which wouldn’t be easy to chase.

Shahzaib Hasan and Abid Ali opened for the Tigers but Shahzaib wasn’t going to hang around when chasing a total like this, he didn’t take long to edge one to the keeper off Mohammad Rameez’s bowling. Babar Azam came in at number 3 and launched into the Panthers scoring 37 runs off just 28 balls with 5 boundaries and 1 six. Babar was caught off the bowling of Usman Qadir.

At the other end Abid Ali looked like he was never going to get out scoring 56 runs off just 60 balls but then a Wahab Riaz bouncer reared and up and hit him on his hand. Much to the relief of the Panthers, Abid had to retire hurt but he should be fine in a few days. This left u21 captain Umar Amin and Pakistan A batsman Shehryar Ghani at the crease. Amin was out to Ilyas after a well crafted 45 but Ghani ended the game not out with a fantastic 75* runs off just 60 balls. However it wasn’t enough as the Tigers fell short finishing on 270/5 after 40 overs.

Once again Azhar Ali batted his team to a win, hopefully the selectors are taking notice of this young man who is long overdue a stint with the Pakistan team!

[u][b]NCA Panthers Batting - 287/10 (40 overs)[/b][/u]

[b]Runs Balls 4s 6s Player[/b]

95* 73 14 0 [b]Azhar Ali[/b]
11 19 2 0 [b]Sharjeel Khan[/b] (c Adnan b M Irfan)
51 45 8 0 [b]Rameez Alam[/b] (lbw Tabish)
11 5 1 0 [b]Umar Akmal[/b] ((c Ghani b Tabish)
0 5 0 0 [b]Asad Shafiq[/b] (c Babar b Raza)
31 28 5 0 [b]Fahad Iqbal[/b] (c Fayyaz b M Irfan)
30 20 4 1 [b]Gulraiz Sadaf[/b] (c Abid b Babar)
18 22 2 0 [b]Sarmad Bhatti[/b] (c M Irfan b Babar)
7 4 0 1 [b]Lal Kumar[/b] (c Ghani b Tabish)
26 17 4 0 [b]Wahab Riaz[/b] (c M Irfan b Babar)
1* 2 0 0 [b]Usman Qadir[/b]

[u][b]NCA Tigers Bowling[/b][/u]

[b]Ovrs Runs Wkts Player[/b]

7 45 2 [b]Mohammad Irfan[/b]
8 58 0 [b]Uzair Ul Haq[/b]
8 50 1 [b]Raza Hasan[/b]
8 63 3 [b]Tabish Khan[/b]
4 42 0 [b]Fayyaz Butt[/b]
4 27 3 [b]Babar Azam[/b]

[u][b]NCA Tigers Batting - 270/5 (40 overs)[/b][/u]

[b]Runs Balls 4s 6s Player[/b]

20 20 4 0 [b]Shahzaib Hasan[/b] (c Sadaf b M Rameez)
56 60 6 0 [b]Abid Ali[/b] (retired hurt, Wahab bouncer)
37 28 5 1 [b]Babar Azam[/b] (c Bhatti b Qadir)
45 43 3 1 [b]Umar Amin[/b] (c Shafiq b Ilyas)
75* 60 10 0 [b]Shehryar Ghani[/b]
12 16 1 0 [b]Adnan Akmal[/b] (c Sadaf b Riaz)
7 12 1 0 [b]Tabish Khan[/b] (c M Rameez b Bhatti)
3*   3 0 0 [b]Raza Hasan[/b]
[i]Did not bat[/i] [b]Wahab Riaz[/b]
[i]Did not bat[/i] [b]Uzair Ul Haq[/b]
[i]Did not bat[/i] [b]Mohammad Irfan[/b]

[u][b]NCA Panthers Bowling[/b][/u]

[b]Ovrs Runs Wkts Player[/b]

8 66 1 [b]Mohammad Rameez[/b]
5 31 0 [b]Lal Kumar[/b]
8 32 1 [b]Wahab Riaz[/b]
4 29 1 [b]Sarmad Bhatti[/b]
4 31 1 [b]Usman Qadir[/b]
5 41 1 [b]Junaid Ilyas[/b]
6 37 0 [b]Asad Shafiq[/b]