our correspondent
PESHAWAR
Abbas Ali hammered a cracking 61 off 92 balls with seven boundaries guided Qabail to a vital 82 runs victory in the final of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Under-17 talent Hunt One-Day final played at Hayatabad Sports Complex ground on Sunday.
Managing Director Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Junaid Khan was the chief guest on this occasion. International Cricketer Kabir Khan, Administrator Hayatabad Sports Complex Jaffar Shah, Coordinator ground Olympian Nasrullah Khan, officials, players and spectators were also present.
Qabail won the toss and elected to bat first by setting up 187 runs in the allotted 40 overs for the loss of nine wickets with middle order batsmen Abbas Ali struck a cracking 61 runs laced with seven boundaries off 92 balls as he stayed for 113 minutes at the wicket.
Abbas Ali played a key role at the time when Qabail lost their two openers for just five runs but thanked to Abbas who along with middle order Uamir guided the team to good total. Abbas Ali made 61 runs and Umair Afzal scored 47 off 56 balls while staying for 90 minutes. Muhammad Latif made 17 runs off 22 balls and Dost Muhammad made 25 runs laced with four boundaries.
For Hazara right arm medium fast bowler Moin Khan claimed two wickets for 21 runs in his four over spell, Muhammad Idrees, the right-arm, medium fast bowler, was the pick of the pack who claimed four wickets for 48 runs in his four overs spell, Anwar Akbar took two wickets for 25 runs and Farman Ullah got one wicket.
In reply, Hazara failed to chase the target and bundled for just 105 runs in which only Muhammad Sharif (24) off 37 balls with four boundaries, Muhammad Salman (15) and Shahzaib Khan (20) runs were the main scorers.
Hazara failed to chase the target and bundled out for 105 in 34.3 overs. Muhammad Sharif (24) off 37 balls with four boundaries, Muhammad Salman (15), Shahzaib Khan (20). For Qabail the most successful bowler was Abdul Jalil who claimed three wickets, Haris Khan, Adil Naz took two wickets each while Haseen Ullah got one wicket. Thus Qabail won the match by 82 runs. Umair Badshah was declared as Man of the match, Afsar Ahmad got best batsman, Muhammad Haris was declared as best bowler, Arafat got best wicket-keeping award.
At the end, the chief guest Junaid khan gave away trophies and cash prizes to the players. He also lauded Kabir Khan and other selectors for short-listing the players for the trials matches. He said out of the tribal matches a final 20 players would be selected purely on merit basis.
He said like cricket, trials would be organized in other games as well with the aim to develop nurseries at grassroots level. He said would be taken to facilitate the youth all across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said more than 1000 grounds would be developed among 50 percent would be constructed in merger tribal districts.
About the forthcoming Under-23 Games, the fourth edition, would be organized soon after Eid-ul-Fitre in which more than 22000 male and female players in 28 different games would take part. He said the govt has increased in the prize money for the position holders besides increase has been made in the sports scholarship for the fourth edition.
