The Pakistani Domestic Season for the year 2011-2012 is heading towards a close, with P.I.A doing a double by winning the Quaid-e-Azam trophy in December last year and also the Faysal Bank National One Day Cup 2012 the Final Tournament which is The Faysal Bank Super Eight T20 will be played in Rawalpindi from the 25th of March. As per the schedule top 8 Regional T20 teams will participate in the tournament. These teams will be divided into two groups of four teams each. Group A includes Faisalabad Wolves, Lahore Lions, Karachi Zebras and Peshawar Panthers, whereas Groups B features power houses like Karachi Dolphins, Rawalpindi Rams, Sialkot Stallions and Lahore Eagles.
Rawalpindi Rams, the Home team will be defending the title which they won in June last year under the dynamic leadership of International All Rounder Sohail Tanvir. And the tournament is sure to attract a lot of spectators because of participation of international stars like Shoaib Malik, Umar Gul, Umar Akmal, Aizaz Cheema, Imran Nazeer, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Sami, Khalid Latif, Fawad Alam and many more.
With so many stars representing different regional sides, the tournament is sure to be a big hit once again just like the last time and will provide quality and entertaining cricket to Pakistani crowds that are deprived of seeing International Cricket since long.
The current edition of the Super Eight will be the Second one. And will be a successor to a very Successful and Entertaining First edition that was played in Faisalabad, June last year.
The first edition was a very big hit and it saw a huge number of people from Faisalabad and Sargodha amassed at the Iqbal Stadium to watch the entertaining T20 Cricket on display.
The tournament kicked off with a bang as Faisalabad Wolves took on Multan Tigers, and Faisalabad’s Asif Ali scored a breath taking 100 in what as His debut game for the wolves. Asif’s effort helped his team in winning the first game of the tournament very easily. However The Faisalabad Wolves lot their initial charm and were disappointing in the remainder of the tournament losing heavily against Karachi and Rawalpindi.
In the second game Karachi Dolphins overcame the Rawalpindi Rams by just 7 runs in a nail biter. Karachi managed only 145 batting first, however this low total proved enough for the Rams as the Dolphins bowlers were immaculate in their effort with the bowl. The Rams however bounced back after this defeat and won all the remaining games to qualify for the Semi Finals where as the Karachi Dolphins under the leadership of Mohammad Sami, also defeated the Hosts Faisalabad by a huge margin of 130 runs to qualify for the semi final from that group. Multan was the fourth team in the group which had a lackluster tournament just like Faisalabad and managed just one victory in the 3 games.
From the other group Lahore Lions and Sialkot Stallions comfortably qualified for the Semi Finals as they had weak opponents like Islamabad Leopards and Hyderabad Hawks in the group. The big clash of the group was between the Lahore and Sialkot teams where the Lahore Lions crushed the Stallions by 45 runs to top the group. Islamabad and Hyderabad also played each other for some consolation and in that game the team from Hyderabad defeated the Leopards by 3 wickets in a nail biting finish.
The Semi Final line up was completed and in the First Semi Final the firm favorites Lahore Lions faced off against the Rawalpindi Rams. It promised to be a cracker of a game as the Lahore Lions had world class players like Mohammad Yousuf, The Akmal Brothers, Ahmed Shehzad, Nasir Jamshed and Aizaz Cheema, whereas on the other hand Rawalpindi did not had any big names, but they had a very high team spirit, and an excellent Captain in Sohail Tanvir who was leading the pack well. The match turned out to be a one-sided affair as the Rawalpindi side showed great team effort and overcame the Lahore Lions. Batting first Rawalpindi made an impressive 186/4 thanks largely to the Wicket Keeper Batsman Jamal Anwar and Sohail Tanvir who were instrumental with the bat. In reply the Lahore Lions crumbled under pressure and were restricted to just 139 in the allotted 20 overs. Rawalpindi advanced into the final.
In the second Semi Final two Power House teams locked horns. Rivals Karachi Dolphins and Sialkot Stallions took on each other in an effort to reach the Finals. However on the day the Dolphins got the better of the Stallions. Batting first the Karachi Dolphins scored an impressive 238/5 in the 20 overs. Rameez Raja Junior and Asad Shafiq destroyed the Stallions bowling scoring 97 and 91 respectively. The Stallions never recovered from the beating they got at the hands of the Dolphins Batsmen and apart from Shoaib Malik and Shahid Yousuf none of their Batters were able to respond to the task. Malik scored 61 and Shahid Yousuf made 40 to take the Stallions to 196 before being bundled out. Karachi stormed into the Finals beating Stallions by 42 runs.
The Final was the most eagerly anticipated match of the tournament. Two teams that were on a roll faced each other. In over cast conditions, Rawalpindi’s Captain Sohail Tanvir won the important toss and invited Karachi to bat first. Karachi scored 164/5 in 20 overs. Once again it was Rameez Raja who scored an impressive 65 for Karachi, He was well supported by Khalid Latif who got a brisk 36.
Rawalpindi chase was a see-saw ride. At one moment they were 56/4 in the 6th over with some important players getting out Courtesy outstanding Bowling from Sohail Khan, however Awais Zia was proving the danger man for the Dolphins as He was smashing the Ball to all parts of the ground, but Zia was removed by Sohail Khan Courtesy an unbelievable catch from Haris Ayaz which brought Karachi right back into the game. However Umar Amin the talented Left Hand Batsman played the role of an anchor and stayed at the wicket till the last over with wickets falling around him. Rawalpindi needed 9 of the Last over with 2 wickets remaining. Azam Husain the Left Arm off Spinner bowled the crucial 20th over of the Rawalpindi innings.
Umar Amin hit a straight six on the 3rd ball of the over and managed to tie the game on the 4th ball of the over by pinching a single, but it wasn’t over, Azam Husain bounced back by picking up wickets of last two deliveries of the over and hence the match was Tied.
It went to the One over eliminator. Rawalpindi batted first. Sohail Khan was assigned the responsibility of bowling the important over. Awais Zia once again thrashed the ball to the boundary numerous times in the over and scored 16 runs.
Karachi needed 17 to win off 6 balls. Raza Hassan bowled the over for Rawalpindi and He was smashed for a straight 6 by Khalid Latif on the very first ball, however Raza bounced back by not only picking up the wicket of Latif but also containing Karachi Batsmen for the remaining of the over.
It was a brilliant game of Cricket; the spectators witnessed one the best T20 Match ever played. Both the teams showed great fighting spirit and never gave up.
Rawalpindi was crowned the Champions of the Super Eight T20 Cup 2011. Sohail Khan of Karachi was given the Man of the Match for his brilliant spell of 5/23 however it wasn’t enough to win His team the tournament.
Karachi’s Rameez Raja was awarded Tournament’s Best Batsman award as He scored 238 runs and Sohail Khan of Karachi was adjudged Tournament’s Best Bowler who grabbed 14 Wickets in just 4 games.
Overall it was a Brilliant Tournament, large amount of people gathered daily at the Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad to watch some fascinating Cricket it gave a strong message to the world that Pakistanis are a Cricket and Peace loving nation and it can manage some outstanding Domestic Competitions without involving any Foreign Players.
GeoSuper