• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Quaid E Azam Down To The Finale As The Two Best Teams Eye On The Silverware

Quaid-e-Azam | Down to the finale as the two best teams eye on the silverware

The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is played between 6 teams with each team playing a total of ten games. As of now, the league stages have been finished. The Northern is at the top with 152 points including four wins, two losses, and four draws. At the second position is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 150 points which include four wins, five draws, and a solitary defeat. Sindh finished in third position with 143 points, followed by the fourth placed Central Punjab, Southern Punjab and Balochistan. The format of the competition is such that the top two teams get to qualify for the final.

At the start of the season, most of the matches were high-scoring ones. As the season progressed the pitches became dry and dusty, providing assistance to the spinners and the total came down. At this point, Ali Usman of Southern Punjab has the most wickets in the tournament, his tally reads 43 wickets from 13 innings. Second on the list is Mohammad Ali with 32 wickets in 13 innings, third in the rank is Sindh’s Sohail Khan with 30 wickets from 14 innings. 

Coming to the highest run-getters, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Sahibzada Farhan tops the list with a tally 924 runs in 18 innings. The second spot is sealed by Northern’s Mohammad Huraira with 878 runs to his name off 16 innings. Tayyab Tahir is at the third spot with 791 runs from 18 outings. 

The highlight of the season is Mohammad Huraira who has scored a triple century, becoming the second-youngest player in the Pakistan domestic circuit to achieve this feat. 

This season of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy has reached its climax as Northern take on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Karachi, starting from Christmas Day. This will be a great encounter as both these teams have their eyes set on the silverware. These two finalists have met each other twice in the mandatory league stages where one match was drawn and the other was bagged by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This win against their opponents will boost their confidence going into the finals. All the matches won by these two teams were comfortable ones for them. They either won by large margins or by an innings. Both the teams are in good shape and will be a cracker of a match as they compete to win the trophy. 

In what can be termed as a sensational comeback, the Northern came out of nowhere to claim the numero uno spot at the end of the league stage. Having won none of their first six matches, which included four draws and two losses, the Northern managed to qualify for the final as they pulled off something special and won four consecutive matches from thereon. Coming at the back of an innings win against Balochistan, they will enter the final as slight favourites.

On the other hand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has blown hot and cold so far in the tournament. They developed consistency at the end of the league stage but most of their games had ended in a draw. With four wins, five draws and a loss in ten matches, Khyber ended at the 2nd spot on the points table. The Northern pose as the final frontier for them and they will look to conquer. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have the tag of defending champions and will look to keep that with themselves after this year's final.

Both the teams look evenly balanced on paper. The pressure of the final will make the match the battle of the nerves. Whatever the result be, the fans are in for a mouth-watering contest.  

Discover more
Top Stories
news

The Ashes | Not the level an England team should be playing at: Joe Root fumes ahead of 3rd Test

England captain Joe Root has warned his compatriots in the England national team that they should be operating at a much higher level if they want to stand a chance against Australia Down Under. Speaking in a pre-match press conference Root was seen fuming as he reiterated that the tourists cannot be ‘losing eight wickets for just 70 or 80 runs.’ "There was a lot of frustration. Purely because of the basic mistakes that we've been making. And we've done it twice in a row. We can't afford to be losing eight wickets for 70 or 80 runs. It is not good enough. It is not the level that an England Test team should be playing at," Root told reporters in Melbourne. England have been handed a heavy drubbing in the last two Test matches. Not only have they lost two out of the five games, but have lost them in a rather humiliating manner. Asked about his emotions after the Adelaide Test, Root confirmed that he was angry despite him trying to be at his pragmatic best "It did come easy to be angry at the end of the last game because of the situation we're in and the manner in which we lost. I'll always try to look at things with a level, pragmatic approach but I don't think you could after the way we've played those last two games. I expect a response from everyone this week.” England take on Australia in Melbourne for the third Test match of the series that starts on Boxing Day, 26 December. Australia will be reinforced with their captain Pat Cummins who returns after missing out on the last Test match. England have called up the likes of James Vince and Saqib Mahmood going into the final three Test matches of the series.

news

If my statement on Kuldeep hurt Ashwin, I’m happy: Ravi Shastri

Former India coach Ravi Shastri has reacted on R Ashwin’s comments where the off-spinner revealed that he was disappointed after Shastri called Kuldeep Yadav who had picked up a five-for against Australia in Sydney in 2019 as “India’s No. 1 overseas spinner”. “In that moment, though, I felt crushed. Absolutely crushed,” Ashwin had said and further added that he felt like being thrown “under the bus”. Shastri while talking at The Indian Express’ eAdda has now said that he was happy if his words hurt Ashwin because the spinner got some good results after that. “Ashwin did not play the Test in Sydney and Kuldeep bowled well. So it’s fair I give Kuldeep a chance. If that hurt Ashwin, I’m very happy. If your coach challenges you, what will you do? Go home crying and say ‘I won’t come back’. I, as a player, would take it as a challenge, to prove the coach wrong,” Shastri said. “About throwing Ashwin under the bus, he need not worry, because I had told the bus driver to stop two-three feet short.” Ashwin had also raised complains about Indian cricket being insensitive towards his injuries to which Shastri replied that he had asked the right-arm bowler to work on his fitness. “The message to Ashwin in 2018 was that he had to be fit. He has worked on that and look how he is bowling now. He is world-class. The way Ashwin bowled in 2019 and the way he has bowled in 2021, it’s chalk and cheese,” said Shastri.