Babar Azam’s brilliant ton and bowlers’ dominance helped the Stallions crush the Dolphins by mammoth 174-run victory in the seventh match of the inaugural Champions One-Day Cup at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.
DOLPHINS' INNINGS
Chasing a target of the 272, the Dolphins were bundled out for 97 with 25 overs remaining. Only four of the batters could reach the double digit, with Sahibzada Farhan (32) being the top scorer.
Asif Ali (21), Saud Shakeel (12), and Umar Amin (10) were the other three batters to reach the double digit.
Muhammad Hurraira (0), Sarfaraz Ahmed (5), Qasim Akram (4), Faheem Ashraf (4), Sufiyan Muqeem (1), and Mir Hamza (0) could not show any significant resistance with the bat.
Abbas Afridi (3) remained unbeaten.
Mehran Mumtaz (3-14) and Jahandad Khan (3-18) took three wickets apiece. Abrar Ahmed (2-15) and Haris Rauf (2-28) scooped up two wickets apiece.
Mohammad Ali (0-22) remained wicketless.
STALLIONS' INNINGS
Earlier, after opting to bat first, the Stallions were off to a great start as the openers, Yasir Khan (46) and Shan Masood (34) had provided a nice start to the Mohammad Haris-led side. The 76-run stand between Masood and Khan was broken by Faheem Ashraf, when he removed the Pakistan red-ball captain.
Tayyab Tahir once showed resilience and stayed on a wicket, compiling circumspect 49-ball 33, before he was removed by Qasim Akram.
Yasir Khan was shown the path to the pavilion by the Dolphins skipper, Saud Shakeel, who trapped the former LBW.
But the highlight of the Stallions’ innings was none other than Pakistan white-ball captain Babar Azam, who after being schooled for not among the runs in international cricket staged a terrific comeback in the domestic cricket circuit and notched up his 30th List A century.
Babar clobbered seven boundaries and three towering sixes in innings, which he will remember in terms of his outings in Faisalabad in domestic cricket.
Earlier, former cricketer Aamir Sohail had also acknowledged Babar for trying to remove his technical flaw.
Meanwhile, Hussain Talat looked to take the Stallions near the 300-run mark, but was unlucky to get run out on 25-ball 23.
Mohammad Haris struggled to show resistance and was undone by Sufiyan Muqeem on 15-ball 6.
Jahandad Khan scored a run-a-ball 8, before he was undone by Mir Hamza.
Mehran Mumtaz scored 3, before he was perplexed by Abbas Afridi.
Haris Rauf had remained unconquered on 5-ball 3.
Interestingly, all of the Dolphins’ bowlers took a scalp each.
PLAYER OF MATCH
Babar Azam has bagged the player of the match for notching up a brilliant century against the Dolphins
TOSS
The Stallions had opted to bat first against the Dolphins.
