Red Bull Campus Cricket Pakistan Champions 2016 ‘University of Central Punjab’ got off to a flying start in the on-going world finals of the Red Bull Campus Cricket tournament that is taking place in Sri Lanka.
In a match played in Colombo, University of Central Punjab fielded first. The potent bowling attack of the Pakistani outfit was tough to overcome for their opponents from UAE who could only post a sub-par score of 135 for nine in their allotted 20 overs. Rohit Jamwal kept his team in the hunt with a measured innings of 40 off 41 balls as the rest of the batsmen were caught in a whirl against the pace and spin bowling options deployed by University of Central Punjab bowlers who were brilliantly led by their captain Ali Tipu Sultan. The left-armer who was the star of the Pakistan edition of the Red Bull Campus Cricket 2016 tournament continued his fine run in Sri Lanka too returning remarkable figures of three wickets for 14 runs from his quota of four overs. Tipu’s left-arm spin bowling was the key performance for his team; the captain was ably supported by Aftab Azwer who claimed three wickets in his four overs spell that was a tad costly with the bowler conceding 39 runs. University of Central Punjab batsmen were in fine form with their bats and were rarely troubled by their opponents during their chase of 136 runs.
The winners went past the target in 17.3 overs losing a mere three wickets in the process. Junaid Ali led the way for his team with a sparkling half-century — 56 runs off 41 balls. Junaid was ably supported by Usman Khalid who also made light work of the UAE bowling line-up through his 38 ball innings; Usman scored 46 runs to ensure that his team went past the target without any hiccups. Daniyal Shakeel was the only successful bowler for the UAE outfit, he bowled with great control and discipline to concede a mere 12 runs in his four over spell but his efforts went in vain as the rest of the bowlers failed to make inroads into the University of Central Punjab line-up that looked in control of the chase from the outset. In the end Pakistan beat UAE by 7 wickets with 15 balls remaining.
The eight college teams from eight countries were divided into two groups of four at the tournament draw on September 4, 2016. The group stages will take place in Colombo from September 5-7, at the headquarters of Sri Lankan cricket, the Sinhalese Sports Club, and at the adjacent Nondescripts Cricket Club. The semi-finals and final will take place at the Galle International Stadium on September 10 and 11 respectively. College teams from eight countries – Sri Lanka, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa and United Arab Emirates – have qualified through their own national competitions, with Assupol Tuks Cricket (University of Pretoria), aiming for the hat-trick after winning the last two World Finals in 2014 and 2015.
The competition this year will see the trial of a new Energiser Over, where the runs for one over per side, tactically nominated by the batting team at any point after the Powerplay overs, will count double. Any wickets taken during that over will cost the batting side 5 penalty runs.
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