The Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association had announced in early 2019 that Pakistan’s National disabled cricket team would play the scheduled normal cricket World Cup in England this year as well as the World Disabled Cricket Series. After this announcement, a wave of happiness spread among the national disabled cricketers and they started preparing for the scheduled 8th Disability 20 Pentangular Cup in Karachi in March. As I have written before, the selection committee of Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association included Iqbal Imam, Sabih Azhar, Javed Ashraf and Muhammad Javed. All the teams are made equal, that is why a player from any region of Pakistan can play from anywhere. The tournament was also sponsored by the National Bank of Pakistan which was a full expression of confidence in the work of PDCA, Disabled Cricket, Disabled Cricketers by a major National institution.
The 8th Disability 20 Pentangular Cup matches were also played with National Bank of Pakistan Sports Complex at TMC Cricket Ground and RLCA Ground. In the first match of the event, Punjab Disabled defeated Sindh Disabled by five wickets, in the second match Balochistan defeated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by seven wickets, in the third match Punjab Disabled defeated Balochistan Disabled by 69 runs, in the fourth match Federal Area Disabled defeated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by seven wickets, Federal Area Disabled by five wickets in the fifth match, Punjab Disabled by eight wickets in the sixth match, Balochistan Disabled by five wickets thanks to Adil Abbasi’s 118 runs, Federal Area Sindh by seven wickets in the seventh match. In the eighth match, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Disabled defeated Punjab Disabled by five wickets.
After the group matches, defending champions Federal Areas Disabled and Punjab Disabled made it to the finals. During the event, the Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association’s selection committee scrutinized the performance of all the cricketers so that at the end of the event, the Pakistan Disabled Cricket Team’s second tour of England for the scheduled training camp Could announce In this context, the teams of Federal Areas and Punjab were happy to reach the final and they were determined to show their best in the final as well. As previously written, Pakistan’s disabled cricketers had a historic success in their first tour of England in 2018 and that the memories of that first tour were still fresh in the minds of the players and everyone wanted it. That his name should be included in the national team again based on his performance.
Despite this thinking and determination of the players, the final proved to be one-sided for Punjab. Defending champion Federal Area Disabled defeated Punjab Disabled by a huge margin of 101 runs. In the final played at NBP Sports Complex Clifton, the winning team batted first and scored 191 runs for the loss of three wickets. Jahanzeb Towana scored 68 runs while Hamza Hameed played an aggressive innings of 66 runs. In reply, Punjab Disabled team piled up 90 runs, with Umar Farooq leading the way with 28 runs. Wajid Alam and Waqas Ahmed scored 12-12 runs. Jahanzeb Towana and Gohar Ali took two wickets each for the winning team. The winning team was awarded Rs. 200,000 and the runner-up Rs. 100,000 cash prize. Jahanzeb Tiwana was declared man of the match. Hamza Hameed of Federal Areas was awarded the best batsman award for scoring 267 runs.
Gohar Ali of Federal Areas was the best bowler in the event with 9 wickets, Amanullah Bhatti of Federal Areas was the best fielder with 6 catches while Adil Abbasi of Balochistan was declared the best player of the tournament with 253 runs and three wickets. Shortly after the conclusion of the 8th Disability 20 Pentagonal Cup, the selection committee of the Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association had also announced 32 players for the World Disabled Cricket Series. (to be continued )
The Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association (PDCA) is responsible for the promotion and expansion of the game through its associate and affiliate members throughout the country for all the Physically Disabled Cricketers of the country and PDCA is also recognized by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) who is the governing body of cricket in Pakistan.