Markhor's Debut Run Lands Them in the President's Trophy Final

Dr. Annelies De Vos · 2026-10-23

Picture this: a team that had never played first-class cricket before this season is now one match away from lifting the President's Trophy. That's exactly where Markhor IT Solutions find themselves, and honestly, it's the kind of story that makes domestic cricket worth following. ### How We Got Here State Bank of Pakistan and Markhor IT Solutions will meet in the final of the first-class President's Trophy 2026-27 at the SBP ground in Karachi. The five-day match is set to start on October 25. Both sides locked in their spots after the seventh and final round of the round-robin stage, and neither let their position slip when it mattered. State Bank of Pakistan finished first. Markhor IT Solutions ended second. Simple as that. One detail worth noting: this will be the first first-class fixture of the season played in Karachi. Every earlier match in the competition took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. So the final brings the action home, so to speak. ### Markhor's Improbable First Season Markhor IT Solutions are playing in the first-class President's Trophy for the very first time. They collected 96 points from seven matches and won two of them. Not a bad haul for newcomers. But the start wasn't pretty. They failed to win any of their first four games. Then the fifth round changed everything, when they beat Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL) by 75 runs. From there, they drew with State Bank of Pakistan in the sixth round and closed the group stage with a six-wicket victory over Pakistan TV. How did they even get here? Back in July, they were declared winners of the grade-II competition on the strength of a first-innings lead over Kingsmen. That result earned them their place in the top tier. ### State Bank's Unbeaten Run State Bank of Pakistan went through the group stage without a single defeat. No other team could say the same. They collected 107 points, the only total above 100 in the competition. Two of their matches ended in wins, against Ghani in the third round and against OGDCL in the fourth. The remaining five were draws. Steady, patient, and effective. ### The Relegation and Promotion Picture Kingsmen secured promotion to next year's first-class President's Trophy with an 82-run win over Eshaal Associates earlier this week. They'll join their sister team Kingsmen Academy, who finished third this season. Kingsmen will take the place of OGDCL, who ended at the bottom of the table for the second year running. OGDCL had been relegated to the grade-II gold competition last year. They returned to the first-class event after the Pakistan Cricket Board removed WAPDA and Saahir Associates for failing to meet regulations introduced before the 2026-27 season. Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited pushed OGDCL to the bottom in the last round. They beat Khan Research Laboratories by four wickets in Rawalpindi and chased down a target of 191. Mohammad Rizwan returned as captain and scored 64 in the first innings, while Abdul Samad remained unbeaten on 69 in the chase. Imam-ul-Haq also came back to domestic cricket in the seventh round and scored an unbeaten 200 as captain of OGDCL. Hussain Talat and Ali Razzaq made centuries for Ghani, which helped them hold on for a draw. ### What's Next The first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is set to begin on November 1. Twenty teams from 16 regions will play in gold and silver divisions. But before that, all eyes turn to Karachi for a final that pits an unbeaten veteran side against a debutant with nothing to lose. Sometimes the best stories in cricket aren't about the biggest names. They're about teams like Markhor, who showed up, took their lumps, and kept fighting until the door opened.