The Wolves were on top from the start of the match and their bowlers gave little liberty to the Dolphins’ batsmen to score freely when captain Naved Latif asked them to bat first.

The Wolves put on extraordinary efforts and hard work in the middle and successfully checked Dolphins’ run-rate. Moin Khan and Agha Sabir tried hard to improve the run-rate through improvisation and succeeded for a while but Saeed Ajmal effectively checked them with his off-spin bowling.

Moin remained the top scorer with 49 off 40 balls. He hit a six and five fours. Agha Sabir scored 37 off 40 balls with the help of three fours.

Faisalabad lost two wickets amidst some tight bowling by the Dolphins. Mohammad Hafeez and Asif Hussain, later declared as the best batsman of the tournament, added 59 runs for the third wicket. Hafeez was aggressive and scored 38 off 24 balls. He hit two sixes and sent the cherry across the ropes four times. Asif was more patient and contributed 37 off 36 balls. He hit four 4’s.

The Wolves middle-order collapsed after the fall of Hafeez and Asif. They were 136 for 5 and while only adding 20 runs slumped to 156 for 8.

Tauqeer Hussain batted sensibly and guided his team to a two-wicket win. Haaris Ayaz claimed 2 for 21. Saeed Ajmal was declared Man of the Match.

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2005 Asif Sohail)