Badar (300*) helps Balochistan qualify for final By Our correspondent LAHORE: Badar’s heroic with triple century helped Balochistan qualify for the final of Commander Soap Blind Cricket League being played at Faisalabad. On day four of the event on Sunday, Balochistan beat Punjab by eight wickets at Bohranwala Cricket Ground, Faisalabad. Badar Munir, who have been in the sublime batting form in this season, played another blinder. He scored 299 runs in the recent NBP T20 Trophy last month and carried forward his awe-inspiring batting form in One-day format event as well. He scored double century in the opening game of this event just couple of days ago but his best has yet to come. Today, till the afternoon, most of the people who had been following the Blind Cricket League in Faisalabad never had thought that the target of 499 runs in 40 over could be achieved.The highest target achieved in the Blind Cricket was 443 runs so achieving almost 500 runs in 40 overs was next to impossible. But Badar’s bat made the impossible, quite achievable. His unbeaten 300 runs in the blind Cricket are the highest runs by an individual in One-day matches. He scored triple century off just 140 balls helped his side to chase the target of 499 runs in 38.4 overs with 8 wickets and 8 balls to spare. Amir Ishfaq supported him with 68 runs. Fazale-Hadi and Anees Javed claimed a wicket apiece. In the morning, Punjab won the toss and opted to bat first. Punjab batsmen hammered the Baluchistan’s bowlers and posted a mammoth total of 498 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in allotted 40 overs. Riasat Khan was their star, he made 152 runs and M Rashid scored 137. Zeeshan Abbasi and Habib Taj took one wicket each. Man of the Match was given to Badar Munir KPK defeated Sindh by 16 runs at the Sandal Bar College Cricket Ground. Sindh won the toss and asked KPK to take guard. KPK posted 334 runs on the board for the loss of 7 wickets in stipulated 40 overs. M Jameel was their highest run getter with unbeaten 105 runs off 80 balls while Mati Ulllah scored 68 runs. Haroon took 2 wickets while Waqas, Rahid Ullah and Saqib shared a wicket a piece. In reply, Sindh didn’t make the most of opportunity given by their bowlers to restrict KPK on comparatively low score. Sindh managed to score 318 runs in stipulated 40 overs for the loss of 9 wickets. M Arslan scored 78 and Haroon Khan chipped in with 55 runs. Israr Hasan was the pick amongst the bunch he took 1 wicket, rest of the players were run out. M Jamil was declared the Man of the Match. After the completion of the round robin, three (3) teams Balochistan, KPK and Punjab had equal (6) points as they had won the same number of matches. Balochistan and Punjab having the better net run rate advanced to the final. The Final of the tournament will be played tomorrow at Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad.
