Wah Karigar reach National Seniors Cup final

KARACHI: Wah Karigar reached the regional final of the 20th National Seniors Cup Cricket Tournament by overpowering Golden Eagles by 20 runs in the semi-final at Shah Faisal Cricket Ground, Lahore.

According to the information shared by the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA) here on Wednesday, Wah Karigar will take on the winners of the other semi-final between Amar Cables and Wah Power in the Northern Region final, scheduled to be held on November 3.

The Northern region champions will then confront Omar Associates, the Southern region champions, in the national final to be staged on November 10 in Lahore. A total of 107 teams from all over the country participated in the annual tournament which has been held every season since its launch a couple of decades ago.

Put into bat, Wah Karigar posted a competitive total of 211 for nine in the allotted 30 overs, which they managed to defend successfully by bowling out Golden Eagles for 191 in 29 overs. Wah Karigar got off to a flying start as openers Muhammad Asghar (36 off 36 balls) and Muhammad Rizwan (35 off 27 balls) added 51 for the first wicket. Golden Eagles came back into the game through left-arm spinner Tajammul Choudhry who claimed four wickets for 28 in a spell of six overs.

Sensible batting by the lower order enabled Wah Karigar to bat out their full quota of overs despite losing wickets at regular intervals. Aftab Ahmed’s 20 off 15 balls in the closing stages of the innings allowed them to finish at a respectable 211 for nine.

Chasing a target of 212 in 30 overs, Golden Eagles also got off to a solid start as the opening pair of Saleem Elahi (34 off 29 balls) and Salman Khan (20 off 23 balls) put on 56 for the first wicket.

Golden Eagles lost their way against the spin trio of Muhammad Javed (5-37), Aftab Ahmed (3-38) and Kashif Kazmi (2-24) and they collapsed to 150 for eight despite Rizwan Aslam’s 61 off 57 balls. Muhammad Zaheer revived their hopes a whirlwind unbeaten 30 off 13 balls but he ran out of partners as the last wicket fell in the penultimate over with 20 runs separating two sides.