KARACHI: Discarded Pakistan paceman Umar Gul grabbed three wickets and Babar Azam hit an unbeaten half-century as Islamabad Leopards completed an inconsequential eight-wicket win over Lahore Eagles in the AlBaraka presents Haier T20 Cup here on Thursday.

With Peshawar Panthers earlier defeating Faisalabad Wolves to reach the last-four phase from Group ‘C’, this game had no interest left barring some individual pointers.

Umar Gul, Leopards’ captain, bowled his full quota to remind the national selectors that he remains in contention of an international recall. The paceman bowled with venom to return figures of three for 24 before the Eagles finished at 131-6.

Missing their injured skipper Imran Farhat who took a knock after colliding with his opening partner Taufiq Umar on Wednesday evening, the Eagles’ main scorers were youngster Sami Aslam (51 off 44 balls, six boundaries and one six) and all-rounder Raza Ali Dar (45 off 30, six fours and one six).

The Leopards reached the target with 16 deliveries to spare. Opener Afaq Raheem batted with some intent to blast nine fours in a quick 41 from only 22 balls, while Babar celebrated his call-up to the Pakistan ‘A’ side for the one-day practice fixture against Australia with an unbeaten 51 (35 balls, eight boundaries) that earned him the man-of-the-match.

Scoreboard

LAHORE EAGLES:

Hussain Talat lbw b Umar Gul 0Taufiq Umar lbw b Shehzad 8Sami Aslam c Irfan b Shehzad 51Imran Butt b Imad 16Raza Ali Dar c Imad b Umar Gul 45Adnan Akmal b Umar Gul 9Zafar Gohar not out 0Usman Qadir not out 0

EXTRAS (B-1, W-1) 2

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs) 131

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-14, 3-67, 4-90, 5-130, 6-130.

DID NOT BAT: Mohammad Naeem, Bilawal Iqbal, Zia-ul-Haq.

BOWLING: Umar Gul 4-1-24-3; Shehzad Azam Rana 4-0-23-2; Mohammad Irfan 1-0-14-0; Raza Hasan 4-0-19-0; Zohaib Ahmed 2-0-17-0; Imad Wasim 4-0-26-1 (1w); Afaq Raheem 1-0-7-0.

ISLAMABAD LEOPARDS:

Afaq Raheem st Adnan b Raza 41Shan Masood b Usman 16Babar Azam not out 51Imad Wasim not out 18

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1, NB-4) 6

TOTAL (for two wkts, 17.2 overs) 132

FALL OF WKTS: 1-52, 2-78.

DID NOT BAT: Faizan Riaz, Zohaib Ahmed, Naeem Anjum, Umar Gul, Mohammad Irfan, Shehzad Azam Rana, Raza Hasan.

BOWLING: Zia-ul-Haq 2.2-0-22-0; Bilawal Iqbal 2-0-25-0 (1nb); Raza Ali Dar 3-0-19-1; Usman Qadir 4-0-23-1; Zafar Gohar 4-0-28-0; Hussain Talat 2-0-14-0 (1nb, 1w).

RESULT: Islamabad Leopards won by eight wickets.

UMPIRES: Khalid Mahmood and Riazuddin.

TV UMPIRE: Aftab Gillani.

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Anees.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Babar Azam.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2014