KARACHI:Lahore’s Amar Cables Seniors clinched 21st National Seniors Cricket Cup title beating Karachi’s Haseen Habib Seniors by three wickets in the national final played here at the Naya Nazimabad Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
The tournament is organized regularly every year since last 21 years by Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA). This year a total 58 teams from 50 cities of Pakistan participated in this tournament.
Haseen Habib batted first in the final and scored 202 runs for loss of nine wickets in allotted 30 overs. Adnan Siddiqui scored 51 runs off 39 balls with the help of three sixes and as many fours. Ahmed with 33 runs and Fawad Bari with 25 runs were the other main run getters.
For Amar Cables, Tariq Rasheed took three wickets for 38 runs and Skipper Waqas Ahmed took two wickets for 47 runs.
Batting second, Amar Cables reached the winning target of 207 runs in 27.5 overs for the loss of seven wickets. Bilal Khilji played an unbeaten innings of 66 runs off 64 balls with the help of two sixes and three boundaries. Skipper Waqas Ahmed coming to bat at No.7 produced an excellent match winning inning of 54 runs off only 25 balls. He hit four sixes and as many boundaries. All of his sixes landed outside the stadium. Jamshed Suleman scored 26 and Ashraf Ali 23 runs.
For Haseen Habib Waheed Ahmed took three wickets for 24 runs.
PVCA Chairman Fawad Ijaz Khan was the chief guest during the prize distribution ceremony. Amar Cables skipper collected winning trophy and cash prize of Rs100,000. Haseen Habib skipper received runner-up trophy and cash price of Rs50,000.
Cash Prizes of Rs, 5,000 each were given to Waqas Ahmed (Player of the Final), Faisal Mirza (Best Batsman), Imran Ali (Best Bowler), Farhan Asghar (Best Wicket Keeper) and Jaffer Qureshi (Best All Rounder).
Prize Distribution Ceremony was also attended by Alamgir Ahmed, Amjad Islam Rishi, Ilyas Butt, Asim Jah and renowned Cricket Writer Qamar Ahmed.