Celebrities Cricket Tournament at LUMS - Article 2

Published in The Post's "Red" on 27th of October, 2007 till 02-11-07. : Celebrities Cricket Tournament at LUMS :: The match featured an array of sixes, fours, catches and stumps flying all over and even an instance of the ball hitting the stumps but the bails not coming off (which later occurred a couple of times more in the tournament). The stars showed us all just how talented they are at things other than music as they matched the LUMS team in all aspects By: Ahmad Babar It was yet another endeavor by JbnJaws Productions of Lahore. The setting was a October night in the LUMS cricket ground (or whatever is now left of it) on Thursday, 11th October 2007. People keenly filled every chair and standing place that all for only one reason find for just one thing, to see their favorite stars battle it out on the cricket field. The lights were blazing and so were the emotions and spirits. The likes of Atif Aslam, Ali Zafar, Xulfi, Junaid, Abrar-ul-Haq and Mustafa were all geared up in their best sports outfits along with the Captain of the Pakistan cricket team Shoaib Malik, who was there to support his friends. The crowd was entertained by the commentators throughout the matches which consisted of LUMS students, RJs from Radio 1, Ali Zafar's manager Haroon and the players from time to time. The crowd got to hear the comments of 'Mr. Musharraf', 'Miandad' and a host of other 'big names' throughout the tournament, courtesy the versatile commentators. Credit has to be given to both JbnJaws and SLUMS [Sports at LUMS Society] for the event that it started on time and also arranging everything on such a short notice. The tournament was sponsored by Wateen Telecom and Radio1 FM 91, drinks provided by Nestle PureLife, Red Bull and Nescafe and the event covered by a large section of local media. The first match was played between the Rockstars, led by Xulfi, and the LUMS cricket team while the Popstars sat in the VIP box and took notes as the teams played six overs each. The atmosphere both on and off the field was hot --- thank Heavens we had the Red Bull people there. The match featured an array of sixes, fours, catches and stumps flying all over and even an instance of the ball hitting the stumps but the bails not coming off (which later occurred a couple of times more in the tournament). The stars showed us all just how talented they are at things other than music as they matched the LUMS team in all aspects. Unfortunately the Rockstars fell just a few runs short of the experienced LUMS team but nevertheless it was a well fought match. The second match turned out to be the highlight of the tournament. It was the Pop Artists (comprising of Captain Ali Zafar, an exuberant Atif Aslam and a charged up Abrar-ul-Haq along with others) versus the Rockstars [which featured the likes of Captain Xulfi, Junaid, Sultan Raja, Mustafa Zahid and Sam (Akash)]. The two teams were evenly matched in all departments and showed great temperament and skill in the eight overs a side match. The match came down to the last over with the Rockstars needing 14 runs to win. The Pop team was looking all set for a comfortable victory but the Rock team somehow fought back right to the last ball, off which they needed three to win. The batsman hit the bowl straight down the ground to the fielder, the match seemed to be over but the Rock team decided to go for a risky second run which paid off and the match ended in a draw. The rest of the Rock team rushed onto the ground celebrating to the beat of dhols while the Pop team stood discussing the matter with the umpires. As the two teams had an equal number of runs, but the Pop team had fewer wickets so they were declared the winner. They started celebrating but shouts of the 'Bowl-Out Rule' took over. Even Shoaib Malik smiled trying not to remember the recent Pakistan-India match at the 20Twenty World Cup when this rule had been applied for the first and the only time till date. There was a lot of confusion. No one was sure what to do till Ali Zafar offered to proceed in whatever manner Xulfi wanted to. This resulted in a 5-over rematch to be played immediately. The rematch turned out to be one sided affair as a slightly dejected Pop team first couldn't muster much with the bat despite of great efforts by their star player who had also performed well in the preceding match, Atif. However he could only muster 38 runs from their five overs. Unfortunately Atif' injured his foot while batting but still took up the challenge of opening the attack, but the score turned out to be a little too low to defend on a wicket that wasn't doing too much for the batsmen. The next match was between a now well-tested LUMS team and the Rock team, which the LUMS team won comfortably, but not without a fight from the stars. Then there another match between LUMS and the Pop team, in which LUMS again came out victorious and with this victory they won the tournament on points basis, earning themselves a beautiful trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 20,000/- The final match of the night was between the Rock and Pop teams and this was for the second trophy of the night. The match was again a closely fought match with the Rock team coming out victorious once again. The star players of the night were Atif Aslam, Junaid, Mustafa and Ali Zafar all of whom showed great all round performances. Also, it was great to see that everyone gave their best in the field and the crowd got to witness some great diving saves, catches and a few run outs as well. In the end, there was a round of applause for the organisers JbnJaws for managing an event of this magnitude so well. Three cheers for everyone involved with the match --- the organizers, the players, the crowds and last but not least, the umpires, who took a lot of grunt throughout the night.