Karachi to host President's Trophy final between State Bank of Pakistan and Markhor IT Solutions

MITS and SBP were confirmed as the finalists after the conclusion of the seventh and final round of the round-robin group stage. The two teams were strong contenders to make it beyond the group stage as they sat at the top of the eight-team table before the start of the last round.

It has been an impressive run for MITS, who made their first-class President's Trophy appearance this season. They finished second on the points table with 96 points, earned from two wins in seven matches. They were barely in contention for the first half of the tournament, going winless in their first four games, but their fortunes changed in the fifth round when they beat Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL) by 75 runs. They secured a draw against SBP in the sixth round and capped off the group stage with a six-wicket win over Pakistan TV (PTV) in the last round.

They had earned the promotion to the first-class President's Trophy in July after being declared winners of the grade-II competition by the virtue of first innings lead over Kingsmen, who have been promoted to the next year's first-class President's Trophy after securing an 82-run win over Eshaal Associates earlier in the week.

Table-toppers SBP have also won two matches - in the third and fourth rounds against Ghani and OGDCL. They have been the only undefeated team in this year's competition and are the only team to record more than a hundred points, 107 to be precise, as their other five games ended in draws.

Kingsmen will join their sister team Kingsmen Academy, who finished third, in the top-tier competition and will replace OGDCL, who have finished bottom twice in as many seasons. OGDCL were relegated to the President's Trophy grade-II gold competition last year but found themselves back in the first-class competition after PCB axed WAPDA and Saahir Associates for their failure to comply with the regulations introduced in the lead-up to the 2026-27 season.

They were pushed to the bottom of the table following a thrilling four-wicket win by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) over Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in Rawalpindi. SNGPL - one of the strongest departments in Pakistan's history - found themselves at the verge of relegation before the start of this round but the return of their captain Mohammad Rizwan saw them secure their first win of the season. Rizwan - who had been denied permission to play domestic cricket by the PCB because of an ongoing cybercrimes investigation - made 64 in the first innings to help SNGPL post 195 in reply to KRL's 151. SNGPL were handed a 191-run target which they overhauled at the back of an unbeaten 69 by Abdul Samad.

Imam-ul-Haq, another cricketer being investigated by the cybercrimes agency, also returned to domestic cricket in the seventh round and made it memorable by thumping 200 not out while captaining OGDCL. But centuries from Hussain Talat and Ali Razzaq, son of former Pakistan allrounder Abdul Razzaq, however, saved the match for Ghani as it ended in a draw.

This final will be the first first-class match of the season in Karachi as all matches of the first-class President's Trophy have been played in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. The President's Trophy follows first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, which is scheduled to begin from November 1 and will be competed by 20 teams from 16 regions divided into gold and silver divisions.