Northern, Sindh clash in U19 final today

ISLAMABAD: Northern, after recording victory in the round-robin league, are now eyeing a win against defending champions Sindh as four-day final of the National Under-19 Cricket Tournament is starting today (Saturday) here at the KRL Stadium.

The two sides have played each other once in the tournament with Northern winning the match by seven wickets thanks to all-round performance by Mubasir Khan, who took 9-135 and scored an unbeaten 68-ball 60 in the fourth innings. For Sindh, Hassan Jafri’s 105 off 192 balls went in vain.

Also in the final of the last edition, both the sides put up a good show but at the end Sindh came out victorious by a seven-wicket margin. Aamir Ali was the star performer, who took 11-133.

After completion of the group stage, Northern topped the points table with 20 points, while Sindh finished second with 14 points.

Left-handed batsman Saim Ayub, who has scored 212 runs in five matches with an average of 42.40 will lead Sindh. Saim has also taken five wickets in the tournament.

Sindh will be banking on their spin twins Adeel Meo and Aaliyan Mehmood, who are at numbers four and five, respectively, in the list of highest wicket-takers in the tournament.

Left-arm spinner Adeel has picked 15 wickets from five matches, with an average of 19.73. His best figure in an innings was 6-32, which came against Balochistan in the first round match, which Sindh won by nine wickets. Aaliyan grabbed 14 wickets from five matches with an average of 27.07.

Northern will be headed by wicketkeeper-batsman Muhammad Razaul Mustafa, who has five dismissals under his belt. He topped last year with 25 dismissals from six matches in the three-day tournament.