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Excellent half centuries by Naumanullah and skipper Moin Khan guided Karachi Whites to the National One-day Associations Cricket Tournament title when they defeated Sheikhupura by 79 runs at the Qadhafi Stadium on Sunday.

Naumanullah shifted the gears at the right time to score a 96-ball 74 while a cameo innings of 67 from 63 balls by Moin propelled the visitors to an imposing 278 for five from 50 overs.

Sheikhupura never recovered from the double shock in the first eight balls to finish at 199 - thanks to a face-saving 106 by Test reject Qaisar Abbas.

Moin, leading Karachi Whites in the absence of an injured Shadab Kabir, received the trophy from the sponsors chief executive Mr Asad and a cash prize of Rs75,000.

Sheikhupura's skipper Aqib Javed received the runners-up cash prize of Rs40,000.

Karachi Whites, electing to bat first, made a shaky start losing both the openers, including key man Shahid Afridi and Zafar Jadoon, at the total of 12.

Naumanullah with Saeed bin Nasir, however, stabilised the innings when they added 99 runs off 134 balls to lift the total to 111.

The partnership ended when Saeed was bowled by leg-spinner Faisal Virk after scoring 49. He hit four boundaries and faced 79 balls.

Moin Khan, promoting himself to No 5, joined Naumanullah and featured in three productive partnerships which helped his team reach a challenging score.

Moin and Nauman added 55 runs off 67 balls for the fourth wicket before the latter was stumped by Kaleem Imran off leg-spinner Farrukh Majeed for 74. Nauman's innings was studded with seven boundaries.

Moin Khan, then found another ally in Hasan Raza with whom he added 34 runs off 29 balls before Hasan departed, being stumped by Kaleem off Farrukh Majeed, for 23.

Moin and Arif Mahmood then held Sheikhupura bowlers by the scruff of their necks with some exquisite hitting to plunder 76 runs off the final 42 balls.

Arif blasted five boundaries and a six in his undefeated 23-ball 43 while Moin played a typical innings during which he struck three boundaries and two sixes.

Sheikhupura were made to pay for packing their bowling attack with spinners when none of them could contain the rampaging tourists.

Chasing a big target, Sheikhupura innings revolved around Qaisar Abbas who played a sensible knock at a time when wickets continued to fall like nine-pins from the other end.

It was such a shame that despite hitting a brilliant century, the left-hander had to end up on the losing side.

Qaisar slammed 10 fours off 134 balls. He reached his 50 off 71 balls with five hits to the fence when completed his century by pulling Adnan Malik to long-on for a boundary.

The writing for Sheikhupura was on the wall after Imran Nazir disappointed his team-mates to be bowled off the very first ball of the innings by Tanvir Ahmad.

Sheikhupura had hardly recovered from Imran's demise when in the following over, Mohammad Javed also perished. The dismissal of the openers left Sheikhupura playing for pride than anything else.

Moin not only marshalled his troops like a shrewd leader, continued to inspire his boys in the field by holding three catches.

But the real star of Karachi in the sweating afternoon was left-arm spinner Adnan Malik who bowled to a teasing line and length to be rewarded with three wickets for 48 runs.

Pacemen Tanvir Ahmad and Imran Javed and off-spinner Tabish Nawab got two wickets each for 23, 46 and 32 runs respectively.

© Dawn