KARACHI: Head coach of Peshawar Panthers, Abdul Rehman, says that winning the National T20 Cup for the first time in their history will boost the aspirations of future cricketers belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Panthers defeated Lahore Lions, who were defending their crown with a second-string side, by a convincing margin of seven wickets in the final here at the National Stadium on Sunday night. Left-arm seamer Taj Wali and opener Iftikhar Ahmed stood out for the new national T20 champions and were declared joint recipients of the man-of-the-match award.

Taj, who took the wickets Lions openers Abid Ali and Kamran Akmal on successive deliveries in his third over, returned career-best figures of three for 30 before Iftikhar anchored the 134-run chase by making an unbeaten 50 from 44 balls.

However, both Taj, 23, and Iftikhar, 24, were not part of the 10-man list which national chief selector Moin Khan announced on Sunday for the three-day workshop starting at the National Cricket Academy from Tuesday.

Abdul Rehman believes win to further boost cricket across KP

But their team-mates Adil Amin, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Imran Khan and Imran Khan Junior are four of the Panthers players picked for the short programme in Lahore.

Rehman, himself a former first-class cricketer, while lauding his team’s great achievement told Dawn on Monday that cricket has a very bright future in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“When we came here nobody rated us highly simply because our squad didn’t have big names that several other teams usually have in a tournament like this. But I told the boys just to focus on their game and contribute as a unit,” Rehman said.

“It is the result of this self-belief that enabled us to make history. What pleased me most was the camaraderie in our side because I told the players to not only help every individual but enjoy each other’s company also.

“I think it won’t be an understatement on my part to say that winning the title will only further boost the sport in every nook and corner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There is heaps of cricketing talent in the province and if proper opportunities are afforded to budding youngsters, we will have a good number of them making a name for themselves. Four of our players have been short-listed for the NCA and that is a big plus for Peshawar.

“Peshawar have made good strides in re­cent times despite exodus of several Pakis­tan players [Younis Khan, Umar Gul and Yasir Hameed] to other regions,” he noted.

“These setbacks actually have spurred others to shoulder more responsibilities. We won the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy [Division Two] title three seasons ago and reached the one-day cup final last season. So there is a marked improvement there.

“I’m a generally an optimistic person and as a coach it is my duty to get the best out of the team. And although we won the T20 title I still believe we can achieve more in the future because these boys are good students of the game.

“A number of players in our squad are from far-flung areas and yet they gelled extremely well as a team, as you all saw. Zohaib [Khan] not only led the side brilliantly but also proved himself an inspiration for his players. We saw something special in Zohaib that compelled us to make him the captain,” Rehman observed.

Meanwhile, Lahore Lions captain Azhar Ali was disappointed at the outcome of the final. The Pakistan Test batsman, however, lauded the Panthers’ resilience.

“It was always going to be tough for us to defend the title with an inexperienced side. We knew it would be difficult with the main players [Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad, Wahab Riaz and Aizaz Cheema etc] away in India,” Azhar told Dawn.

“It would have been the icing on the cake for this [Lions] team had we won the final but I must admit the Panthers played much better than us. They bowled in the right areas, forcing us into committing mistakes.

“I’m not offering any excuses but it was hard batting on a surface which behaved differently under lights. We never got the momentum to post a decent total once Abid, and more importantly, Kamran got out.

“All credit to the Panthers and they certainly deserved to be the champions,” Azhar added.

“However, for us there were some positives too from this event. Imam-ul-Haq is a talented batsman with a bright future ahead of him and [pace bowler Mohammad] Aftab can be an asset for Pakistan in the coming years,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, September 30th , 2014