Pakistan Association survived a few anxious moments before pulling off a four-wicket win over Templars at the Kowloon Cricket Club yesterday.
In search of their second Sunday League title in three years, the Pakistanis lost no time in registering their fifth win of the season, dismissing Templars for a paltry 135, thanks mainly to a splendid 72 from Pat Fordham.
But that total began to look imposing after the Pakistanis went into a self-destruction mode midway through the chase, losing three wickets with the score stuck on 62.
Openers Sada Hussain and Ilyas Gul had steadily kept the scoreboard ticking over before a former teammate of theirs, Mohammed Jamshaid, pressed the panic button by taking two wickets in his seventh over.
The left-arm medium pacer grabbed the wickets of Gul and Hashmi Ali in the space of four balls. Then in the next over, Templars' skipper Tony Correa got the inside edge of Sada Hussain's bat for Fordham to take a regulation catch. Hussain hit 41 including two sixes and three fours.
His dismissal brought together Pakistan Association's two most experienced batsmen, Saleem Malik and Wasim Imtiaz, but the latter did not last long, being dismissed 14 runs later to a nice catch at first slip by Rahul Sharma off Correa.
