KARACHI: In a day/night final that turned into a one-way traffic on Saturday evening in Rawalpindi, Karachi Whites thrashed Karachi Blues by a clinical margin of eight wickets to retain their PCB Inter-region Under-19 One-day Championship title.

Astutely handled by ex-Pakistan Under-19 head coach Mohammad Masroor, who added another title to his already impressive CV, Karachi Whites were just too strong for their Blues strings on the night at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.

While speaking to Dawn, Masroor praised the good standard of his charges throughout the tournament.

Having guided Karachi to three consecutive Under-16 trophies besides mentoring the city’s under-19 outfit to three straight titles, including one with Karachi Blues in 2015, apart from guiding Pakistan to ICC Under-19 World Cup semi-finals last year after winning a tri-series in that age-group against Australia and New Zealand in the UAE, Masroor had also overseen Pakistan defeating Australia in U-16 series of one-day and T20 matches Down Under as assistant coach.

“I think the boys were tremendous. The way they carried out the tasks assigned to them was exemplary. It was simply due to hard work and confidence of the boys in my ability and same I gave them,” Masroor remarked. “I have always tried to inculcate positivity instead of being negative. Our strike rates [in this tournament] are the highest by any team because this the requirement of modern day cricket.”

Winners of the title last year when they defeated Sialkot — the only region who beat them in this championship — Karachi Whites dictated terms from the very beginning once Karachi Blues skipper Daniyal Naveed chose to bat first at the toss.

Promising paceman Mohammad Ali Khan set the ball rolling by getting rid of Ashar Qureshi with the opening delivery of the title-decider with Mohammad Taha taking a sharp catch at second slip.

Ali soon sent back other opener, Imran Shah, for five while slow left-armer took care of wicket-keeper/batsman Anas Ilyas (2) to leave Karachi Blues tottering at 13-3 in the sixth over.

Karachi Blues then engineered a comeback of sort as Haider Ali (69 off 93 balls, four fours and one six) and Usama Butt (40 off 55, two sixes and two fours) added 78. Mohammad Zubair also batted well to strike four boundaries in a 41-ball knock of 37.

But once they got dismissed, the tor set in as Karachi Blues stumbled from 157-4 in the 37th over to 186 all out in 45.4 overs.

Ali ended up three wickets for 28 runs in 10 overs in a brilliant performance that earned him right-armer man-of-the-match award.

Karachi Whites then made light work of their modest target. Scoring beyond seven runs an over, the champions raced to 187-2 midway through the 26th over.

Umair Yousuf, who set s new national record of 653 runs in the tournament, starred in the chase by hammering an unbeaten 81 from only 71 deliveries with the aid of seven fours and three sixes.

Fellow opener Sufyan Khan dominated the first-wicket partnership of 75 with Umair with a quickfire 47 off just 34 deliveries as he struck six boundaries and a brace of sixes.

The only blotch for the winning side was when captain Ram Ravi was undone by a lovely delivery from leg-spinning all-rounder Ashar Qureshi to the first ball he faced after Sufyan had been caught at extra cover on the previous one.

But the left-handed Jahanzeb Sultan kept Umair company in the unfinished stand of 112 by hitting up 49 off 47 balls with three fours and two sixes.

Karachi Whites received Rs200,000 for winning the title with Karachi Blues taking Rs100,000. Among individual awards, Umair was adjudged the best batsman, Ashar best bowler (24 wickets) while Karachi Whites all-rounder Mohammad Taha was declared the best all-rounder for his tally of 374 runs and 21 wickets.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017