| Rawalpindi Rams
راولپنڈی ریمز |
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| Coach: | Sabih Azhar | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Captain: | Sohail Tanvir | ||
| Colours: | / | ||
| Founded: | 2004 | ||
| Home ground: | Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium | ||
| Capacity: | 15,000 | ||
| Owner: | RRCA | ||
| Twenty-20 Cup wins: | 1 (2011) | ||
The Rawalpindi Rams (Urdu: راولپنڈی ریمز) are a domestic t20 team, based in Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan. The team was established in 2004-05 and its home ground is the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The team plans to play in 16 franchises tournament which is Pakistan Premier League. The manager of the Rams is Sheikh Abdul Sattar.
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The Pindi based club failed to make their mark in this edition and bowed out at the group stages, although many criticize the format of the tournament for creating 'pressure-cooker' games, as you have to win both of your group matches to proceed to the next stage because of the fact that only a single team advances to the semis from each of the four groups.
The tournament started of with a scare for the Rams as the lowly Quetta Bears had them at the ropes at 59-5 but the allrounder-wiketkeeper duo of Yasir Arafat and Jamal Anwar successfully revived the scoreboard and set a challenging total of 143 for victory. The score would prove more than enough for the Bears as they succumbed to the excellent seam bowling attack of the Rams with a paltry 67 on board.[1]
Following the large victory, however, they lost to Lahore Lions in a crucial fixture at the Gaddafi Stadium. Pursuing 172 for victory, they were shot out for 150[2] largely because of the more than just handy contributions from the left-arm spinner, Sohail Ahmad, who scored an invaluable 24 with the bat and then came back to take 4-13 to end the Rams' chances of qualifying for the semis.
Umar Amin was the most productive run-scorer for the Rawalpindi Rams, scoring 72 runs from the two games with a half century under his belt. Pakistan's future fast-bowling star Mohammad Aamer also turned a few heads at the initial stages of the tournament with 5 wickets at exactly 3.25 runs per over.
The 2009 edition of the domestic tournament was nothing spectacular for the Rams as they faltered again at the group stages like the other nine knocked out teams but then again they showed some fight throughout the tournament largely because of the bolstering effect of Mohammad Aamer in the bowling along with tidy contributions from Hammad Azam, Tahir Mughal, Yasim Murtaza, Umar Amin and the left arm spinner Raza Hasan.
Their initial group clash with Karachi Zebras ended up with a nervy 11-run victory[3] but they couldn't rise up to the big occasion and suffered a knockout defeat at the hands of the eventual champions Sialkot Stallions in the following game[4] due to a devastating 57-ball-95 from the domestically seasoned allrounder Naved-ul-Hasan. They could only muster 180 from the 198 required for victory despite a late surge from Hammad Azam.
The top run-getter for the club was Tahir Mughal who racked up 92 runs at an impressive average of 46. Among the bowlers, 17-years-old spinner Raza Hasan impressed with returns of 4-64 in the two games combined.
The 2010 Domestic T20 Cup was by far the most illustrious for the club. They defeated the 5 time champions Sialkot Stallions, who lost to any team for the first time in as many years.[5] They came with intent in the high scoring clash at the Gaddafi Stadium with the opening duo of Awais Zia and Naved Malik smoking the Stallions out of the park on numerous occasions. With the Rams going at over 14 runs per over, a monstrous total was on the cards but the Pindi batsman couldn't capitalize on the solid start and ended up at a much feeble, although still quite challenging, total of 191. In reply the hard-hitting Imran Nazir provided the Stallions with just the initial boost required, scoring 45 from 15 balls, and suddenly making the target of 192 look eerily achievable but thanks to the bowling efforts of Yasim Murtaza, Hammad Azam and Sohail Tanvir, a flurry of late wickets ensured that the Stallions would sit out of the finals for the first time since 2005.
Before this landmark game though, the Rams had got the better of Karachi Zebras by 28 runs in their opening group clash.[6]
Afterwards though, they had the mammoth task of getting past Shahid Afridi's strong Karachi Dolphins to reach the finals. A feat that was considered achievable with the start they got and it looked like that for a moment as they pilled 209 runs in a mosquito infested first innings which saw the proceeding being called off twice, but much to the disbelief of the Rams the target got chased down with more than an over to spare as Sohail Tanvir's death bowling wavered under pressure, along with the Rams' overall fielding.[7] Shahzaib Hasan, Fawad Alam and Shahid Afridi played rollicking innings for the Dolphins which brought huge cheers from the capacity crowd.
Naved Ashraf was the most productive batsman for the Rams in the tournament, successfully making 101 runs at an average in excess of 30. While among the bowlers gutsy allrounder Hammad Azam topped the charts with 8 scalps at 11.1 runs per over.
Despite all the brighter points, Rams' success on the ground was overshadowed by allegations of spot-fixing from the PCB. The Pakistan Cricket Board announced that an all-rounder (most probably Sohail Tanvir) that played for the Rawalpindi Rams was being investigated for Match-Fixing. It is suspected that the player was being paid to play dot balls and bowl loose deliveries. This meant that the Karachi Dolphins successfully managed to chase down 209 runs within 20 overs [8] The PCB announced that another match was also being investigated for fixing.
PCB, for the first time, introduced a relegation system in its T20 league and the five lowest ranked teams in the previous year's edition of the Twenty-20 Cup (Quetta Bears, Karachi Zebras, Lahore Eagles, Abbottabad Falcons and Peshawar Panthers) were left out to set up a Super 8 T20 Cup in which eight teams were divided into two groups of four with top two teams from each group setting up semi-final dates with each other.
Rawalpindi Rams started this tournament on a low note with a defeat at the hands of Karachi Dolphins which left them in a do-or-die situation to win their remnant group games or sit out of the semi-final. Chasing a modest score of 146, the Rams lost both their hard hitting opening batsmen to Tanvir Ahmad's medium pacers with a paltry 33 on board. Tight spells from the Karachi spinners ensured that they never really recovered from the early blows and thus cascaded to 136 all out.[9]
In their second group game Rawalpindi Rams took on the home team Faisalabad Wolves in a jam-packed Iqbal Stadium. The Wolves went in first and gave the Rams a quite chase-able total of 141 but Pakistan National Cricket Team veteran, Mohammad Hafeez had other ideas as he triggered a drastic collapse with his canny off breaks. Rams were once cruising along at 90-0 but then in a matter of minutes were reduced to 120-6 giving the Wolves a sniff of a surprise victory in front of the home crowd. All such possibilities were shut out by the Rams' wicket-keeper batsman Jamal Anwar who struck 19 from 6 deliveries,included 3 fours & a massive six to bring the matter to a close.[10]
In their third and final group game, Rawalpindi Rams easily got past an off-color Multan Tigers side. The pursuit of a 129-run target on a batting friendly wicket wasn't much of a test for Pindi's hard-hitting batting lineup and they got there with 7 wickets and 5.3 overs to spare.,[11] thanks mostly to the incisive left arm spin bowling of Raza Hasan (4 for 21 in his 4 overs).
Rawalpindi Rams made their first ever appearance in a domestic T20 Cup Final by annihilating a star-studded Lahore Lions (defending champions) in an anti-climax of a semi-final. Rams set up a more than just competitive score of 186 in a pressure game thanks to Jamal Anwar's (67 runs off 48 balls including 6 fours & 3 sixes) and Sohail Tanvir's (60* off 44 balls including 5 fours & 3 sixes) fourth wicket stand of 111 from 68 balls. In reply the Lions were just a mere shadow of their former, dominating selves and were reduced to a miserly 88-8 in 13.2 overs by some swashbuckling bowling by the Pindi bowlers before a uselessly late cameo from Adnan Rasool (41* off 24 balls) restored some parity to the Lions score but they were still left needing 50 runs from the last bowl of the game.[12]
On Friday, July 1, 2011, history was written for the Rawalpindi Rams as they beat a strong Karachi Dolphins side in a nerve wrecking finale at a packed-to-the-rafters Iqbal Stadium. The Dolphins were coming back from decimating 5-time champions Sialkot Stallions in the other semi-final and were hot favourites to win the Cup but some tight bowling from the Rams' bowlers especially, slow left armer Samiullah (4 overs for 19 runs), put a cap on Dolphins's power-packed batting lineup and kept them to a par score of 164 in the allotted 20 overs. In reply the Rams' openers started off in the typical '5th-gear' style and got their team to a flyer but then suddenly, the Dolphins maverick, Sohail Khan took two wickets in an over to stun the free-flowing Rams. In Sohail's next over seasoned Rams opener, Awais Zia, creamed him for four consecutive boundaries and restarted Rams' quick advance towards the target but as so often is the case in cricket the bowler has the last laugh and Sohail ended up stopping the Awais Zia juggernaut thanks to the unbelievably superb fielding effort of Haaris Ayaz at mid-wicket who dived full length and pouched a dazzling catch with one hand. The match continued to see-saw both ways before it fittingly ended up as a tie and a Super Over was called in to provide the final ruling.
The best bowler of the tournament was pitted against the aggressive Awais Zia in the first of the two super overs (one per team). Awais superbly scored 16 runs, including a scintillating flat six over midwicket, to give Karachi a challenging total of 17 to win from their 6 legitimate balls. In reply, Khalid Latif belted the very first bowl from left-arm spinner, Raza Hasan, straight back over his head for a monstrous six before falling the next ball. Dolphins could add only a single run to their total as Raza finished his over with a superbly targeted arm-ball that gave Rawalpindi Rams their first ever domestic T20 title.[13]
Wicket-keeper batsman Jamal Anwar was the most successful run-getter for the Rams (7th overall) in this edition of the tournament with 131 runs at an average of 43.6. While Raza Hasan was the second most potent bowler in this tournament (after Sohail Khan) with 11 wickets at 6.2 runs per over.
| Played | Wins | Losses | No Result | % Win | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004/05 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 50.00% |
| 2005/06 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 16.87% |
| 2006/07 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 50.00% |
| 2007/08 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 50.00% |
| 2008/09 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 33.33% |
| 2009/10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 50.00% |
| 2010/11 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 66.67% |
| 2011 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 60.00% |
| 2011/12 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 80.00% |
| Total | 30 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 51.67% |
| Played | Wins | Losses | No Result | % Win | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afghan Cheetahs | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Abbottabad Falcons | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 00.00% |
| Faisalabad Wolves | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 40.00% |
| Hyderabad Hawks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 00.00% |
| Islamabad Leopards | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 00.00% |
| Karachi Dolphins | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 16.67% |
| Karachi Zebras | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 66.67% |
| Lahore Eagles | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 00.00% |
| Lahore Lions | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 25.00% |
| Multan Tigers | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Peshawar Panthers | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 50.00% |
| Quetta Bears | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Sialkot Stallions | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 25.00% |
| Total | 30 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 51.67% |
The following are some verified[17] records of the club.
Lahore based natural medicine/homeopathic company, Aftab Qarshi, were the shirt sponsors for the Rams in the 2011 edition of the T20 Cup.
| Pakistan Premier League | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| Lahore Eagles | Rawalpindi Rams | Sialkot Stallions | Peshawar Panthers |
| Karachi Zebras | Faisalabad Wolves | Lahore Lions | Karachi Dolphins |
| Abbottabad Falcons | Multan Tigers | Hyderabad Hawks | Islamabad Leopards |
| Quetta Bears | Afghan Cheetahs | ||