Fourth edition of National Twenty20 Cup concluded in Lahore today with Sialkot Stallions retaining the Champions title for third year running. Runners Up Karachi Dolphins were left wondering about their luck and skills as they have now appeared in 3 Finals in the past 4 tournaments and lost everytime.
Final Score: Karachi Dolphins (125/9), Sialkot Stallions (126/3). Detailed Scorecard here
Following have been winners and runners-up of 4 twenty-20 national tournaments that have been played in Pakistan so far.
2004/05: Winner: Faisalabad Wolves, Runners Up: Karachi Dolphins
2005/06: Winner: Sialkot Stallions, Runners Up: Faisalabad Wolves
2006/07: Winner: Sialkot Staliions, Runners Up: Karachi Dolphins
2007/08: Winner: Sialkot Stallions, Runners Up: Karachi Dolphins
13 teams from all over Pakistan took part in this year’s tournament. They were divided into 4 pools with winners of each pool qualifying for semi-finals. The points table at the end of pool matches looked as below.
Semi Final 1: Karachi Dolphins (69/1) beat Islamabad Leopards (68)
Semi Final 2: Sialkot Stallions (117/6) beat Lahore Lions (111/6)
Karachi and Sialkot both had a star-studded team. To me, atleast on paper Karachi’s team looked stronger with services of 6 players who have representated Pakistan’s national team.
Karachi was lead by Shahid Afridi. It also had Pakistan’s 5 other ODI players: Fawad Alam, Sohail Khan, Naumanullah, Khurram Manzoor and wicket keeper Sarfraz Ahmed.
Sialkot was lead by Pakistan’s national team captain Shoaib Malik and it also had the services of Pakistan’s 3 national ODI players Mansoor Amjad, Abdur Rehman and Kashif Raza and 1 test player Qaiser Abbas.
Shoaib Akhtar ki wapsi
Ofcourse a big news for this year’s tournament has been the return of Shoaib Akhter. He played for Islamabad Leopards and his performance remained as follows
v Karachi Dolpins: 4 runs in batting and 3-0-22-0 in bowling.
v Multan Tigers: did not bat and 4-1-14-1 in bowling
v Peshawar Panthers: 3 runs in batting and 4-0-30-1 in bowling
Does leadership matter? Could this result have anything to do with the leadership styles of Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi? Does one set a better example for the team than the other?
Is there a reason why Shoaib leads Pak national team rather than Afridi?
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Too bad the Karachi Dolphins ended up being second-best to Sialkot. Why is it that every team I support either performs miserably or fails at the very last hurdle? Perhaps that’s a debate for another day, but with all the doom and gloom surrounding the country at the moment, it was nice to see the attention diverted to something fun and light-hearted, even if it lasted for a just a few days. The harsh reality is that we will not see International cricket in the country for god knows how long and we fans will be starved of quality cricket for a considerable amount of time. Also, our national team hasn’t lived up to its expectations lately (come to think of it, has anything associated with Pakistan done good of late?) and I would, personally, love to see them getting back to winning ways whether they play at home or abroad.
I think its absolutely disgusting that Australia refuses to play in Pakistan byt plays in India with so many bomb blasts happening there as well…ICC should do something about this. If this continues, no ‘white’ country will come and play here…any thoughts?
Congratulations to the Sialkot ‘Ghoray’. We need to place a greater emphasis on sports excellence in our society. Our disillusioned youth will benefit from a sense of pride and accomplishment.