ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2017

Despite the departure of the two oldest veterans, Pakistan’s Test future nevertheless still seems to lie with their older generation. Of their seven Test debutants in 2016/17, only three were under the age of 23 (though to be fair, one – leg-spinner Shadab Khan – was only 18), and none was able to establish himself firmly in a side still dominated by players comfortably past the age of 30. The arrival at the fore of the younger generation looked for in these pages a year ago is still awaited; meanwhile Pakistan continue to slide down the ranking list. Once again the only first-class cricket played in Pakistan itself was the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy competition, unaltered in format from the previous season. Sixteen teams – eight regional and eight departmental – initially played in two pools of eight, with the top four from each pool going forward to a Super Eight stage, again played in two groups. The winners of those two groups then played a final to decide the winners of the trophy. Predictably, seven of the eight teams reaching the Super Eights were departmental sides. Clear winners of the initial pools were WAPDA and Khan Research Laboratories, but only the former maintained their form through the Super Eights, in which Habib Bank – who had only finished fourth in their earlier pool – qualified to meet WAPDA in the final. Sui Northern, winners of the trophy for the last two seasons, this time could finish no better than third in their Super Eight group. The pool match between WAPDA and Habib Bank had finished in an indecisive draw, and when they met in the final the result was the same. WAPDA’s narrow first-innings lead (278 to 236) was sufficient to give them the trophy for the first time since they first took part in this competition in 1984/85. In the two matches during the season between the two finalists, the WAPDA and former Pakistan captain Salman Butt scored three centuries in his three innings. Other individual highlights of the season included a maiden century by Hamza Ghanchi of Karachi Whites which went on to become a score of 300* - only the sixth time anywhere (and third time in Pakistan) that a batsman has turned his maiden century into a triple; and a remarkable performance by his team-mate Mohammad Hasan, who as wicket-keeper took catches to dismiss seven successive Sui Northern batsman in their match in December, and was denied the chance to make it eight in a row because one of his opponents was absent hurt. The only player to reach 1000 runs in the home season was another wicket-keeper: the familiar name of Kamran Akmal (WAPDA), who despite missing two matches scored 1,035 runs at an average of 79.61, with his 14 innings including five centuries and a score of 94. No one else reached even 900 runs. There was a similar margin at the top of the wicket-takers’ list, with the 2015/16 leader Mohammad Abbas (KRL) again leading the way, his 71 wickets at 12.74 (including match figures of 14-93 against Karachi Whites in October) earning him a place on the Caribbean tour in April/May 2017. Only one other bowler (Tabish Khan of Karachi Whites, 62 wickets at 13.54) took more than fifty wickets in the season. (KSW) 278 Pakistan in 2016/17