UCP Crowned Champions of President's Trophy Grade-II Silver
Lahore : University of Central Punjab (UCP) were crowned champions of the President’s Trophy Grade-II Silver Tournament as they beat SASA Packaging by 69 runs in the four-day final from 20-23 October at the Bagh-e-Jinnah Cricket Ground, Lahore.
In the final, UCP posted 323-8 in the allotted 70 overs in first innings with the help of Haris Khan’s 82 off 87 balls. In reply, SASA Packaging rode on Muhammad Waheed’s 113 to score 314-9 in the allotted 70 overs.UCP added 211 runs to their meagre nine-run first innings lead with Mir Azam and Obaid Shahid scoring half-centuries. Chasing 221 to win, SASA Packaging were dismissed for 151 in 48.3 overs with left-arm wrist-spinner Haris picking up 5-64 in 19.3 overs and Hammad Aziz returning figures of 4-33.
The tournament ran from 19 September to 23 October with a total of 18 non-first-class matches taking place among Service Industries, ZM Electronics, SASA Packaging, Sports Board Punjab, University of Central Punjab, University of Punjab.
SASA Packaging and Punjab University played out a drawn semi-final but the former advanced to the final based on their first innings lead, while UCP got the better of Service Industries in the second semi-final.
UCP and SASA Packaging will both compete in the President’s Trophy Grade-II Gold tournament in the next domestic season.
Among the top performers, SASA Packaging’s batters Muhammad Saleem (621 runs), Mohammad Abdul Rehman (517 runs) and Attyab Ahmed (481 runs) lead the leaderboard with UCP Haris (481 runs) and Obaid Shahid (478 runs) on fourth and fifth places.
Haris’ left-arm wrist-spin reigned supreme in the tournament as he bagged the most (56 wickets), while Service Industries’ off-spinner Muhammad Aleem Imtiaz is at the second spot with 40 wickets, followed by University of Punjab’s left-arm spinners duo of Huzaifa Ayub (33 wickets) and Ameer Hamza (32 wickets). ZM Electronics left-arm spinner Hafiz Muhammad Suleman dismissed 28 batters.
