Wahaj stars in Sindh Blues title-winning triumph over Whites
By our correspondent
KARACHI: Sindh Blues on Sunday were crowned champions when they conquered Sindh Whites by a huge margin of 288 runs on the fourth and final day of their final of the National Under-19 Championship here at the UBL Sports Complex.
Blues completed the win when they took Karachi Whites’ inside 53 runs as they were folded for only 217 while chasing a mammoth target of 506.
Shahwaiz Yasir, who was unbeaten on 50, could add only one run to his score, before Naveed Ahmed Khan sent him back to the pavilion. Naveed was one of the two bowlers – the other being Afnan Khan , in the innings to claim three wickets. Aftab Ibrahim and Ziaullah got two wickets each.
Syed Tayyab Hussain, not out on 22 at stumps on Saturday, was the only Whites player to show some resistance with a fifty before he was stumped off Ziaullah. Tayyab hit five fours in his 151-ball 53.
Blues were able to set such a huge total for Whites due to brilliant bowling from their bowlers and captain Wahaj Riaz’s sound batting. Wahaj made 72 and 116 in the match and his second innings century rescued Blues from a batting collapse. Wahaj was declared as player of the final.
His teammate Afnan Khan, with 228 runs and 22 wickets, was named player of the tournament while the best batsman award went to Blues’ Habibullah, the first innings centurian. He finished the season at the summit with 448 runs.
Sindh Whites’ Haseeb-Ur-Rehman (38 wickets) and Ghulam Ashraf bagged the best bowler and best wicketkeeper awards respectively.
Summarised scores:
Sindh Blues 1st innings 363-9 declared, 81.2 overs (Habibullah 130, Wahaj Riaz 72, Saad Baig 36, Aftab Ibrahim 29, Haroon Arshad 24, Afnan Khan 22, Ali Hasan 21; Syed Tayyab Hussain 5-85, Daniyal Ahmed 2-40, Haseeb-ur-Rehman 2-147) and 278 all out in 70 overs (Wahaj Riaz 116, Arbaz Khan 57, Saad Baig 29, Habibullah 24; Haseeb-ur-Rehman 4-107, Syed Tayyab Hussain 3-69, Fahad Amin 2-48)
Sindh Whites 136 all out, 60.1 overs (Ali Ishaq 26, Daniyal Ahmed 26, Noman Ali 23; Afnan Khan 3-21, Naveed Ahmed Khan 3-22, Aftab Ibrahim 2-45) and 217 all out, 78.5 overs (Syed Tayyab Hussain 53, Shahwaiz Yasir 51, Yahya Shah 35, Ali Ishaq 20; Afnan Khan 3-43, Naveed Ahmed Khan 3-50, Ziaullah 2-38, Aftab Ibrahim 2-49)