The eleventh and the last round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (Grade I) tournament concluded yesterday with Karachi-Whites, despite being humbled in their last league match by Peshawar, emerged as winners of the league round with 87 points followed by Lahore-Blues with 63 points in their bag. These two teams, hailing from the largest and the second largest cities of the country, respectively, will meet in the final of the trophy getting underway at the National Stadium, Karachi from the 20th of January.

Peshawar played remarkably well in their last two league matches to comprehensively defeat Lahore-Whites and Karachi-Whites, but just could not overhaul the points tally of Lahore-B, the ultimate finalist along with Karachi-W. After beating Lahore-W by an innings in the penultimate match at the latter's ground, they went on to snatch a surprise win against Karachi. Peshawar, boasting of players like Younis Khan, Arshad Khan, Akhter Sarfraz, Fazl-e-Akbar, finished the round robin league with 60 points.

Like the previous round, the eleventh round also proved rewarding for the batsmen. As many as eleven centuries, including one double hundred by Imran Farhat from Lahore-Blues, were scored in the six matches played. And once again like the previous round, the matches played in the Punjab were mostly marred by bad weather and foggy conditions prevailing throughout the province.

Imran Farhat, the left handed opener from Lahore-B emulated, rather outdid his performance in the second last match of the Trophy by thrashing 200 off just 228 balls in their match against the visiting Bahawalpur side. He had made 170 (160 balls) in the tenth round match against Sheikhupura at the latter's ground. His elder brother, Hamayun Farhat, was not to be left far behind as he hit one of the fastest centuries of the tournament in the same match. He made 105 off just 67 balls.

Lahore-B, led by former Test cricketer Shahid Anwar, piled up 567 in their first innings, but just could not defeat the weather from interfering with the smooth flow of the match, as only 144 overs could be bowled during the four days. Bahawapur were 118 for 3 (32 overs) in their first innings when the game was at last abandoned due to bad weather on the last day. An interesting feature of this match was the inclusion of leading cricketers like Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar, Yousaf Youhana, and Mushtaq Ahmed in the Lahore side. Importantly for Waqar, all the three wickets to fall in the incomplete Bahawalpur innings went to him, as he bowled with all the zeal and passion that has been his hallmark since his arrival at the international arena.

The match at Sargodha between visiting Lahore-W and the hosts ended in a draw thanks again to bad weather. However, the home team got three consolation points as, after restricting the visitors to a paltry 140, they managed to reach 141 for 6 just before the weather played its own game.

The game at Faisalabad between Sheikhupura and the hosts was also badly affected by poor visibility throughout the four days, just allowing the two teams to complete one innings each. After put into bat by Faisalabad, the visitors were all out for 247 in their first innings and then restricted the home team to 233, mainly due to the fiery bowling by Naved-ul-Hasan who claimed seven wickets in the innings. Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistani vice-captain, represented Faisalabad in the match, but he could score just 5 before becoming one of the seven victims of Naved.

The fixture at KRL Stadium in Rawalpindi saw seven hundreds scored by batsmen from both sides. Firstly, it was Ali Naqvi, known for his century on debut against South Africa in the home series in 1997, who played havoc with the Gujranwala bowlers slamming centuries in both innings. He made 108 off 191 balls in the first innings to ensure that his team scored enough runs to take the first innings lead. He came good in the second innings as well, getting 119 (115 balls) as he added 189 for the first wicket along with wicket-keeper batsmen Mohammad Shahbaz (108). These innings were followed by Bilal Asad's 112 from only 69 balls with the help of 16 fours and four sixes.

For Gujranwala, Asim Munir, a member of Under-19 side, saved his side from total collapse as he gathered 114 from 148 balls hitting 22 boundaries. Requiring a mammoth 453 in the second innings to win the match, the visitors made 276 for three at the end of the fourth day's play with Faisal Butt (132) and Imran Abbas (108) playing fine knocks.

The match at Karachi between the hosts, Karachi-B and Rawalpindi saw Mohammad Wasim, another player to hit a century for Pakistan on his debut, score 110 in Rawalpindi's second innings. Rawalpindi scored 360 in their first innings and then restricted the home side to 233, thus denying them three points that they badly needed to avoid relegation.

The match played at Peshawar between Karachi-W and the hosts was the only fixture that offered a result. After restricting the home side to 228 in the first innings, Karachi got 281, thanks to a breezy knock of 108 from Shahid Arfidi. Peshawar could manage 198 in their second innings, leaving Karachi a seemingly easy target of 146 to win the match. However, the target proved to good for the winners of the league round as they were bundled out for 51, conceding the match by 94 runs. Fazl-e-Akbar, the right arm fast bowler, bagged five wickets for 25 runs and Sajid Shah took three for 21.

Sheikhupura and Karachi-B, finishing the round robin league with 18 and 15 points, respectively, from 11 matches each, have failed to qualify for the next year's tournament. They will be replaced by Sialkot and Hyderabad, the winner and runner up of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (Grade II) tournament, respectively.

© CricInfo