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The eagerly awaited clash of the giants ended in an anti-climax when Habib Bank swept to a nine-wicket victory over PIA in the National One-day Championship's final around match at the National Stadium Thursday.

In what turned out to be a one-way traffic, PIA, missing the services of seven frontline players, were bundled out for a paltry 117 in 34.2 overs. The bankers, without Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan, reached the target in 21 overs losing Salim Elahi who threw away his wicket when the scores were levelled.

The match, played before an empty stadium, was effectively over at 2.21pm after PIA crashed out at 12.10pm. Habib Bank, in their 10 overs before lunch, had reached 39 without loss.

The victory assured Habib Bank a spot for Tuesday's semifinal while left PIA in a must-win situation against Allied Bank who defeated Sui Gas in the other match of the day. Both the teams lock horns Friday at the UBL Sports Complex with the winner joining Habib Bank in the last four stage.

Habib Bank face Sui Gas Friday at the National Stadium and a victory would guarantee them champions spot from this group and a semi-final under the National Stadium lights. The winners of the other match will travel to Lahore which will also stage the final next Thursday.

Despite the fact that PIA missed the services of star players, it escaped criticism for such a pathetic performance. The team they fielded was capable of putting up resistance instead of going down without a fight.

Most the players they fielded, had represented them in the Patron's Trophy. That's besides the point that those players were not mentally or physically fit for this tournament after they were not included in the initial squad of 16. Most of the boys were called up at the last minute after the Pakistan team management, in a mindboggling decision, refused to release the players for such a high profile tournament.

Whatever may be the problems of PIA, credit cannot be taken away from the bankers who emerged as a much better and composed side. In spite of PIA's poor and ill-planned cricket, Habib Bank were the deserving winners.

PIA, put into bat, were off to a sizzling start when Ghulam Ali and Shoaib Mohammad posted 36 in the first six overs. But the departure of Ghulam Ali triggered a sensational collapse as PIA lost their last 10 wickets for just 81 runs in 28 overs.

After Test reject Kabir Khan destroyed the top order, spin duo of Danish Kaneria and Abdul Rehman ran through the middle and lower middle-order. Kabir finished with three for 26 while Kaneria and Rehman equally shared four wickets between them conceding 22 and nine runs.

When Habib Bank went out in target chase, Test discards Salim Elahi and Taufiq Umer proved there were no demons in the pitch as they played a sub-standard PIA bowling with comfortable ease.

Salim was caught at covers off a leading edge when one run was needed for victory. Salim struck a 53-ball 68 that included 11 blistering boundaries.

Taufiq, who scored a century in the previous game, returned unbeaten on a cautious 40 off 75 balls. He hit five boundaries.

Scoreboard

PIA:

Ghulam Ali c Irfan b Kabir Khan 15 Shoaib Mohammad c Ijaz b Kabir 16 Yasir Hameed c Atiq b Kabir 1 Asif Mujtaba b Abdul Rehman 32 Sohail Jaffar c Atiq b Sajid Shah 0 Moin Khan c Imran b Danish Kaneria 13 Mohammad Imran c Taufiq b Irfan 4 Nadeem Khan run out 17 Atif Maqbool c Imran b Danish Kaneria 2 Aizaz-uz-Ilyas not out 0 Fazle Akbar c Imran b Abdul Rehman 0 EXTRAS (lb3 w9 nb5) 17

TOTAL (all out, 34.2 overs) 117

FALL OF WKTS: 1-36 2-38 3-38 4-39 5-65 6-76 7-105 8-111 9-117

BOWLING: Kabir Khan 10-1-26-3; Sajid Shah 8-2-31-1; Irfan Fazil 5-0-26-1; Danish Kaneria 8-1-22-2; Abdul Rehman 3.2-0-9-2

HABIB BANK:

Taufiq Umer not out 40 Salim Elahi c Imran b Atif 68 Hasan Raza not out 0

EXTRAS (lb1 w10 nb2) 13

TOTAL (for one wicket, 21 overs) 131

FALL OF WKT: 1-117

DID NOT BAT: Imran Farhat, Ijaz Ahmad, Atiq-uz-Zaman, Sajid Shah, Kabir Khan, Irfan Fazil, Danish Kaneria, Abdul Rehman

BOWLING: Fazle Akbar 8-1-25-0; Aizaz-uz-Ilyas 6-0-43-0; Mohammad Imran 2-0-27-0; Atif Maqbool 3-0-19-1; Nadeem Khan 2-0-6-0

RESULT: HBL won by nine wickets

UMPIRES: Salim Badar, Islam Khan

MATCH REFEREE: Taslim Arif

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Salim Elahi

© Dawn