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Favourites Habib Bank are poised to extend their unbeaten record in the National One-day Cricket Championship when they face WAPDA in the day-night semifinal at National Stadium Tuesday.

This match is a repeat of Pool 'C' clash in the preliminary round last month with Habib Bank coasting to a comfortable victory.

The bankers made it the last four after three straight victories in the Group-I of the final round, including a crushing nine-wicket defeat of PIA at the same venue last Thursday.

With the availability of current Pakistan stars Shahid Afridi, the big hitting all-rounder, and Younis Khan, Habib Bank should coast home without much problems.

Taufiq Umer, left out of the Sharjah Cup squad, proved the national selectors wrong by scoring unbeaten centuries against Allied Bank and Sui Gas last week.

Salim Elahi, another Pakistan reject, played two scintillating knocks before throwing away his wicket recklessly.

Skipper Ijaz Ahmed Sr, the former Test stalwart, narrowly missed a century against Sui Gas. In addition, Habib Bank have the likes of Imran Farhat, Hasan Raza, Atiq-uz-Zaman to support the main batting cast.

The bankers are equally strong in the bowling area with pace duo of Kabir Khan and Sajid Shah leading the way, followed by Test leg-spinner Danish Kaneria and the slow left-armer Abdul Rehman.

WAPDA made to the semifinals by achieving a better net run-rate than either ADBP and Pakistan Customs. All three teams won one game in Group-II.

Adil Nisar, the WAPDA captain, has the daunting task of restricting Habib Bank to a reasonable total on a pitch that is expected to be full of runs.

WAPDA do not have any stars in their side but there is no doubt they will fight till the end.

Teams (from):

Habib Bank: Ijaz Ahmed Sr (captain), Imran Farhat, Shahid Afridi, Taufiq Umer, Salim Elahi, Younis Khan, Hasan Raza, Atiq-uz-Zaman, Sajid Shah, Akram Raza, Kabir Khan, Danish Kaneria, Abdul Rehman, Farhan Adil, Irfan Fazil.

WAPDA: Adil Nisar (captain), Kashif Rasheed, Riffatullah, Tariq Aziz, Rizwan Malik, Zahid Umer, Waqas Ahmed, Kashif Raza, Sarfraz Ahmed, Aqeel Ahmed, Rehan Rafiq, Shiraz Butt, Ikramullah, Faisal Irfan, Aslam Qureshi, Raees Amjad.

Umpires: Shakeel Khan and Asad Rauf.

Match referee: Taslim Arif.

© Dawn