KARACHI: What seemingly was supposed to be challenging chase in the Pakistan cup match on Saturday night became a one-way traffic as Khurram Manzoor and Shan Masood propelled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to a whopping 10-wicket victory over Punjab (partly reported in Sunday’s edition).

After Faisalabad’s own son Asif Ali had smashed a 97-ball 121 to enable post Punjab 297-9, Khurram led a carnage of the bowlers with a blazing 190 — the 31-year-old Pakistan discard’s highest of his 22 one-day centuries — in the second half of the game as and Shan powered the inaugural champions to 298 without to finish Punjab off with 71 deliveries to spare at the Iqbal Stadium.

Records fell by the wayside as Khurram and Shan, who ended up making exactly 100 built their brilliant partnership magnificently to open Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s account after Mohammad Hafeez-led side had badly lost to Federal Areas by 114 runs last Thursday.

Fittingly enough, Khurram brought an end to Punjab’s misery by sending Asif Ali into the stands for his fifth six of a sensational 118-ball knock that also included 26 boundaries. The right-hander’s previous best one-day score was 187 for Karachi Whites versus Islamabad in the National Regional One-day Cup tie at Rawalpindi in February this year.

Shan, who had already amassed over 1,300 runs in the Departmental and Regional one-day competitions earlier this season, registered his 10th List A. His 111-ball innings was embellished with 10 hits to the fence.

Leg-spinner Usama Mir bore the brunt of Khurram’s blistering blade by going for 89 runs in his 10 overs.

The Khurram-Shan stand is the second highest in all List A cricket featuring Pakistan. The record still belongs to former international Ghulam Ali and Sohail Jaffer, who together powered PIA to 326 for no wicket against Agriculture Development Bank Limited — the department of course known now as Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) — in the One-day Tournament for Departments fixture on April 13, 2001 at the Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot.

Scoreboard

PUNJAB:

Zain Abbas c Umar b Sadaf 27
Sahibzada Farhan b Irfan 14
Mohammad Rizwan c Umar b Zia 9
Shahid Yousuf c Shan b Zia 19
Shoaib Malik c Irfan b Zia 10
Asif Ali c and b Zia 121
Kashif Bhatti c Umar b Hammad 11
Mohammad Imran c Khurram b Hammad 59
Usama Mir b Hammad 13
Mohammad Sami not out 3
M. Imran Khan not out 4

EXTRAS (B-4, W-3) 7

TOTAL (for nine wkts, 50 overs) 297

FALL OF WKTS: 1-32, 2-42, 3-70, 4-71, 5-86, 6-130, 7-264, 8-277, 9-292.

BOWLING: Sadaf Hussain 10-0-89-1; Mohammad Irfan 10-1-45-1; Zia-ul-Haq 10-1-60-4 (2w); Hassaan Khan 10-0-39-0; Hammad Azam 9-0-53-3 (1w); Israrullah 1-0-7-0.

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA:

Khurram Manzoor not out 190
Shan Masood not out 100

EXTRAS (LB-5, W-3) 8

TOTAL (for no wkt, 38.1 overs) 298

DID NOT BAT: Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Israrullah, Adil Amin, Hammad Azam, Hassaan Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Sadaf Hussain, Zia-ul-Haq.

BOWLING: M. Imran Khan 5-0-27-0; Kashif Bhatti 10-0-68-0; Mohammad Sami 5-0-32-0 (1w); Mohammad Imran 2-0-19-0; Usama Mir 10-0-89-0 (2w); Shoaib Malik 3-0-21-0; Shahid Yousuf 3-0-31-0; Asif Ali 0.1-0-6-0.

RESULT: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa won by 10 wickets.

UMPIRES: Ahmed Shahab and Rashid Riaz.

TV UMPIRE: Zameer Haider.

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Anees.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Khurram Manzoor.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2018