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
Interestingly, this year Sialkot had a much weaker team than what they had in past tournaments. They were without the services of Mohammad Asif, Imran Nazir and Rana Naveed – all experienced national players for pakistan, and all currently banned for one reason or the other.
So Shoaib Malik led a fairly weak side this year to the title. That’s a job well done.
I believe Sialkot has now qualified for the Dec 08 champion’s league in India, featuring top 2 IPL teams (Chennai and Rajhistan), top 2 Australian domestic teams and top english county team. That contest, with huge prize money, media attention, and crowd pulling ability, is bound to give these youngsters from Sialkot a rare opportunity to compete at BIG level.
Twenty20 Tournament Awards this Year went as follows:
Winners: Sialkot Stallions: Rs 2.5 million
Runner-Up: Karachi Dolphins: Rs 1 million
Man of the Match for Finals: Shoaib Malik of Sialkot Stallions
Best Batsman: Salman Butt of Lahore Lions
Best Bowler: Sohail Ahmed of Lahore Lions
Best Fielder: Naumanullah of Karachi Dolphins
Best Wicket Keeper: Joint award for Ali Raza of Lahore Eagles, Salman Khan of Faisalabad and Sarfraz Ahmed of Karachi Dolphins
Last year Karachi Dolphins lost to Sialkot Stallions by mere 5 runs in the final. Shahid Afridi decided not to play in the final for Karachi and had left the country on the day of the final. Nothing wrong with his personal decision.
It may have left the city team weaker for the final though.
Okha Jatt is proud supporter of Sialkot Stallions. Well done, Sialkotis.
Very welcome distraction from mullahs exploding themselves around the country.