KARACHI: Tapal Cricket Club emerged as the champions of the 27th Karachi Gymkhana Ramazan Festival Cricket Tournament 2012 as they overpowered Advance Telecom by five runs in a terribly low-scoring final here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Friday.
Tapal CC, who won the title for a record fifth time in the 27-year-old competition, succeeded in defending a modest total of 106 against Advance Telecom, who had chased much bigger targets in the quarter-finals and the semifinals.
The low totals by both sides reflected poor quality of batting on a pitch which promised assistance to batsmen.
Due to the over-cautious approach of the contestants the final lacked the intensity which had been the hallmark of the tournament in the past.
Only 207 runs were scored in around 40 overs and more significantly both the teams were bowled inside 20 overs.
Tapal CC made the expected move of batting first after winning the toss. They got off to a solid start but their inability to hit boundaries didn’t allow the run rate to come anywhere near the usual standard of T20 cricket.
Their strategy of keeping wickets in hand backfired when they collapsed as they had in their previous games. Mohammad Javed (22 off 21 balls) and Shaheryar Ghani (19 off 20 balls) failed to speed up the runs.
They were finally dismissed for 106 with Babar Agha, Mohammad Azhar and Sohail Khan claiming two wickets each.
The decision of Advance Telecom to restrain their free-flowing batsmen like Mohammad Boota and Naved Sarwar proved counter-productive and the asking rate, just above five at the start of the innings, kept climbing with every passing over and it went up to double digits in the last five overs.
Mohammad Tanvir revived their hopes with a breezy 25 off 10 balls, hitting two sixes and as many fours, but the task of getting 11 off the final over proved too much for the last pair.
Tapal CC were well served by Ahmed Iqbal (3-24), Asif Aridi (2-20) and Shiraz Ali (2-16), all spinners.
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