National Bank win their first-ever Patron's Cup

National Bank of Pakistan 206 for 7 (Butt 53, Aftab Alam 2-22) beat Habib Bank Limited 205 (Mohamand 52, Amjad 3-31) by three wickets
Scorecard

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) ended their title drought in domestic limited-overs cricket, when they beat defending champions Habib Bank Limited (HBL) to win the ABN-AMRO Patron's Cup final at the Gaddafi Stadium. NBP bowled out HBL for a paltry 205 and then lost seven wickets in chasing the score.

While HBL remain the most successful one-day side in Pakistan, with 12 major titles to their credit, NBP won their first trophy since winning the Wills Cup back in 1994-95. In all, National Bank have now won six one-day titles.

Rafatullah Mohmand's 52 off 79 balls was an innings in vain as the rest of the HBL batsmen collapsed around him. Mansoor Amjad, NBP's legbreak bowler from Sialkot, unsetteled the HBL lower order taking 3 for 31. And when NBP looked uncertain at 139 for 5, Amjad came in and hit 28 and after two more wickets fell he finished off the match along with Tahir Mughal with seven balls to spare.

NBP were given a solid start by Salman Butt who made 53 off 63 balls. They had scored 13 runs less than HBL at the loss of five wickets but while HBL lost their last five for 53 runs, NBP only lost two more in reaching the target.

They received approximately US$ 4000 as prize money for winning the tournament while HBL received $2000 as runners-up. While Amjad was declared the Man of the match, Imran Farhat won the Man-of-the-tournament award.