KARACHI: Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and United Bank Limited (UBL) will explore new territory when they take on each other in the much-awaited day-night Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship final at the National Stadium from Sunday.

After a very long time, the showpiece of domestic season pits two star-studded outfits playing for glory in a match that will define the future of Pakistan cricket with the Australian-made Kookaburra pink balls.

And although SNGPL start as favourites on the credence of their title-winning feat over the previous three first-class seasons, UBL have equal chance of ending a long drought – their last title was in 1996-97 when they clinched the Patron’s Trophy – with a revamped squad of players which includes new signings in skipper Younis Khan, Shan Masood, Sohaib Maqsood, Ehsan Adil and Hammad Azam, all of whom have played at the international level.

Younis’ side may not match the depth which SNGPL have in abundance. Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali is a shrewd operator when it comes to team planning under his stewardship as head coach, SNGPL are virtually unstoppable at this level with a rotation policy in place.

Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq, just like his UBL counterpart Younis, hardly needs any introduction. Misbah was at the helm when SNGPL defeated a completely different UBL team in the President’s Trophy final at Multan two seasons ago but missed the drawn Quaid-i-Azam Trophy final last year in Karachi when Azhar Ali led the team to title on the basis of first-innings lead against National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).

That final brought Mohammad Rizwan into limelight as the short-statured right-hander struck a career-best 224 – an innings that didn’t go unnoticed and earned him a place in the Pakistan ODI and T20 side in the post-2015 World Cup era.

Despite their star-studded billing, Basit is unwilling to gloat about SNGPL’s past achievements.

“You always see it as a new game,” he told Dawn on Saturday. “What has gone in the past is history. We are here to compete in a final where two teams of equal standing are competing and one of them will come out as winners. You always aim for the high and it do that you have to put your best foot forward.

“In fact, we are under more pressure than other teams during the season. The reason: over expectation of the people who follow our team of stars. This isn’t the case at all. Every time our boys take the field they have to start from the scratch. There are no easy games as many people think.”

Basit was undeterred by use of pink balls for only the second time in a domestic first-class final.

“It [pink balls] will be same for both teams. Neither we nor they [UBL] have ever played with pink balls. It would make for compelling viewing as well on TV after the publicity generated by staging of the Test in Adelaide. Our aim should be to adapt to conditions with futuristic mindset,” he added.

Previously, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) staged two finals at the National Stadium with balls other than the traditional red ones. In 2010-11, orange balls were utilised when Habib Bank beat PIA by five wickets in an incident-packed final which forced match referee Anwer Khan to fine several players for ball-tampering, and use of abusive language while both teams were further docked for maintaining slow over-rates.

In the 2011-12 season, pink balls were in operation in the title-deciding fixture here when PIA won the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy against ZTBL by nine wickets.

Umar Rasheed, UBL’s head coach, hoped for a better contest between bat and ball.

“Obviously, talk on everyone’s lip as to how the pink ball would react in the prevailing conditions. But all of us are prepared for it. Both teams practiced under lights to get used to the pink, “ Umar told Dawn before adding: “Like everyone else, we are looking forward to the final and hope to provide a good game of cricket.”

UBL will be handicapped by the unavailability of Pakistan strike bowler Wahab Riaz, who has not turned up here since he is attending to his seriously ill father in Lahore. National duty had also forced the left-armer to miss the entire round of matches in the championship.

Teams (from):

SNGPL: Mohammad Hafeez, Taufiq Umar, Hussain Talat, Azhar Ali, Umar Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Adnan Akmal, Imran Khalid, Asad Ali, Azizullah, Samiullah Khan Niazi, Imran Ali, Imran Butt, Manzoor Khan.

UBL: Sharjeel Khan, Shan Masood, Umair Khan, Younis Khan (captain), Sohaib Maqsood, Saeed bin Nasir, Gulraiz Sadaf, Hammad Azam, Yasim Murtaza, Ehsan Adil, Mir Hamza, Rumman Raees Khan, Sadaif Mehdi.

Umpires: Ahsan Raza and Ahmed Shahab.

TV umpire: Khalid Mahmood.

Match referee: Anwer Khan.

Fourth umpire: Imtiaz Iqbal.

Scorers: Syed Imran Ali (official); Salman Hussain Kazmi (media).

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2016