LAHORE, March 7 Sialkot kept their cool to win the RBS Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship title after scoring a four-wicket victory over Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in the final at the Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot on Saturday.

Sialkot, who were 40-3 at the start of the fifth and final day in pursuit of a modest target of 158, were guided home by an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 50 between Haris Sohail (35, five fours) and Bilawal Bhatti (27, four fours).

Left-handed Ayaz Tasawwar, who was batting on 21 at the close of play on Friday, contributed a vital 53 off 82 balls with the aid of seven boundaries before he was caught behind by Zulfiqar Jan off Yasir Ali, who took all three wickets to fall on Saturday.

Medium-pacer Yasir, who played a solitary Test against Bangladesh in Multan in September 2003, finished with four for 64 in 20 overs.

Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal failed to take a wicket on the last day and ended up with two for 55 in 19.3 overs.

This was the second occasion when Sialkot won the premier national first-class championship after having clinched the title in 2005-06. The KRL, on the other hand, have never been able to win the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy although they were also runners-up in the 2000-03 season when PIA overwhelmed them by 10 wickets in the final at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Sialkot's reward for winning the title earned them Rs1 million. The KRL received the runners-up prize-money of Rs500,000. Naeemuddin, the opener who scored 135 in Sialkot's first innings, was adjudged Man-of-the-Match, an award worth Rs50,000.

Among other individual Rs50,000 award winners, National Bank's Pakistan all-rounder Fawad Alam was declared the tournament's best batsman for scoring 855 runs, Sialkot's bowling spearhead Naved Arif took the best bowler prize for claiming 62 wickets in the championship while his team-mate Kamran Younis held 19 catches to win the best fielder award.

The best wicket-keeper award was shared by Sialkot's Ahmed Butt, Zulfiqar Jan of KRL and ZTBL's Shakeel Ansar. All three finished the season with 44 victims.

Scoreboard

KRL (1st Innings) 299 (Azhar Ali 99, Ali Khan 42).

SIALKOT (1st Innings) 386 (Naeemuddin 135, Kamran Younis 86, Ayub Dogar 43, Bilal Azmat 40; Saeed Ajmal 5-105).

KRL (2nd Innings) 247 (Ali Naqvi 86, Zulfiqar Jan 56; Naved Arif 6-58).

SIALKOT (2nd Innings, overnight 40-3)

Kamran Younis st Zulfiqar b S. Ajmal 11

Naeemuddin c Zulfiqar b Yasir 4

Ayaz Tasawwar c Zulfiqar b Yasir 53

Bilal Azmat b S. Ajmal 1

Nayyar Abbas c Wasim b Yasir 10

Ayub Dogar c Zulfiqar b Yasir 4

Haris Sohail not out 35

Bilawal Bhatti not out 27

EXTRAS (B-7, LB-3, NB-3) 13

TOTAL (for six wkts, 46.3 overs) 158

FALL OF WKTS 1-15, 2-37, 3-39, 4-79, 5-89, 6-108.

BOWLING Yasir Ali 20-1-64-4 (3nb); Junaid Khan 5-0-23-0; Saeed Ajmal 19.3-4-55-2; Ali Naqvi 2-0-6-0.

RESULT Sialkot won by four wickets.

UMPIRES Riazuddin and Ehtesham-ul-Haq.

MATCH REFEREE Musaddeq Rasool Khan.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH Naeemuddin.