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.