President Trophy: Another Title for Misbah as Captain

After the announcement of long awaited President Trophy Grade-I Final by PCB, final was played between teams of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL). It was played on 14 January 2012 to 18 January 2013 at National Stadium, Karachi. These teams also included many stars of Pakistan national team including Misbah ul Haq, Younis Khan, Umar Gul, Umar Akmal, Adnan Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq and others.

Captain Misbah ul Haq

               SNGPL team was led by Pakistan’s national team's skipper Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan led HBL team. HBL won the toss and invite SNGPL to bat first. Misbah led from the front from the very first day of final match. As SNGPL loses 3 wickets for only 49 runs, 38 years old give a strong support to his team by making unbeaten 85 runs and take team total to 283 runs. Inform batsman Ali Waqas also contributed 83 runs. Fahad Masood of HBL clinched 5 wickets for 67 runs.

Misbah ul Haq playing shot

               In their first innings, HBL batsmen were struggling throughout the whole innings. They bowled out for the total of only 137 runs. Ahmed Shahzad played a good knock of 79 for his team. Mohammad Hafeez took 4 wickets for only 16 runs.

               SNGPL was leading with 146 runs. In their 2^nd innings, SNGPL batting line up failed to establish against the good pace bowling of Umar Gul. Umar Gul’s Hat-Trick destabilized SNGPL batting line and they were dismissed only for 182 runs. Umar Akmal was the highest scorer for SNGPL who scored 76 runs. Umar Gul bowling figures were 6-67.

Umar Gul Celebrating after taking wicket

               Chasing the target of 329 runs, HBL started the innings and finished day 4 on the score of 159 for 6. At the start of final day of the final match, Imran Farhat was the only hope for HBL to lead their team towards the victory. But no one succeeded to have victory for HBL. Remaining 4 batsmen dismissed at the total score of 253 and lose the match.

Imran Farhat

               At last, Mr Patient Misbah ul Haq snatched the President Trophy title for his team by 75 runs after beating Younis Khan’s side. He has been continuing his victorious journey in different national and international tournament as captain since 2001, winning different national and international titles for his team, including defeat to World Cup holders in recent bilateral ODI series.