RAWALPINDI – September 11, 2015: Another five matches were decided on Friday in the Cool & Cool Present Haier Mobil T20 Cup 2015 being played in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, with sensational wins coming for Faisalabad, Multan, Peshawar, Karachi Whites and Karachi Blues.
Faisalabad defeated Abbottabad in a crunch match by 2 wickets at Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi.
Abbottabad won the toss and chose to bat first and took Faisalabad bowlers to the sword.
Yasir Hameed’s 59 off 40 and Sajjad Ahmed’s 56 off 36 balls helped Abbottabad to put a sizable total of 178 for the loss of 7 wickets.
Misbah led Faisalabad, which had lost both their early matches, showed promise and won the match in last over that at one moment seemed impossible.
Faisalabad’s Khurram Shehzad for his 59 out of 39 balls played a key role in the victory. Khurram was also awarded man of the match for his brilliant batting.
Khurram in his half century punctuated five hits across the ropes and three over it. Asif Ali also played his part in the win with a 31-ball 45 studded with four fours and two sixes.
Some valuable addition came from Imran Khalid who made 26 with the help of four boundaries facing 18 balls while Ehsan Adil remained not out at 14 in three balls as he also hit two fours and a six. Junaid Khan was the pick of Abbottabad bowlers while Kamran Ghulam and Yasir Shah shared two wickets each.
Yasir Hameed and Sajjad Ali led Abbottabad charge with 59 and 56 runs respectively. Yasir smashed five fours and two sixes in 40 balls he faced, while Sajjad who had four fours and four sixes he hit in 36 balls earned him limelight.
Sohail Akhtar with 28 in 15 balls with the help of three fours and a six and Younis Khan 22 in 15 balls with the help of three fours consolidated Abbottabad score. Ehsan Adil with three wickets, Zahoor Khan with two and Saeed Ajmal with one checked Abbottabad batting progress.
Multan while playing at Diamond Ground, Islamabad, pummelled Bahawalpur by 33 runs.
Multan achieved 169 runs for the loss of three wickets in which Zain Abbas and Imran Farhat played a vital role. Zain achieved unbeaten 57 in 47 balls, hitting seven fours, while Farhat came among the runs in 32 balls as he made 46 runs. He timed eight boundaries.
Sohaib Maqsood and Naveed Yasin came up with useful addition in the score by making 29 and 26 not out respectively. Kamran Hussain, Muzamil Tahseen and Zahir Siddiqui only got success with the ball once each.
Later, Multan bowlers not only kept Bahawalpur batting line-up in control but also showed its superiority in the game by allowing them to only score 136 for four in 20 overs. Riyasat Ali was the top scorer from Bahawalpur side with 63 flowered with four fours and the same number of sixes as he played 40 balls. He was supported by Faisal Mubashir with 35 in 38 balls. He hit three boundaries. Moinuddin tried his best to save the blushes but could make 17 not out in 23 balls. Amir Yamin with two wickets while Zulfiqar Babar and Rizwan Haider with one each contained Bahawalpur batting. Zain Abbas of Multan was later declared the man of the match.
At the same venue, Karachi Whites grabbed an easy 60 runs win over Hyderabad. In fact Karachi taught cricket lesson to Hyderabad by first scoring 173 runs for the loss of seven wickets and then bowled Hyderabad out for 113 runs in 15 overs. Karachi’s top order led by Faisal Iqbal, Ehsan Ali, Rameez Aziz and Mohammad Waqas brought runs for their team. Faisal Iqbal in his 43-balls 60 hit eight fours, Rameez Raja took 18 balls and seven fours to reach 37, while Ehsan Ali faced 26 balls hitting four boundaries to get 30 runs. Muhammad Waqas contributed 24 runs and later Tariq Haroon added 14 runs. Lal Kumar and Nasir Awais had two wickets each.
Apart from Shoaib Leghari who could manage 51 runs none of the Hyderabad batsmen stayed at the crease. His 31 ball innings also had seven boundaries and one six. As there were four ducks, Nauman Ali 20 and Sharjeel Khan 18 were the only other batsmen to reach double figures. From Karachi attack Mir Hamza, the man of the match, played the damaging act with four wickets for 28 runs and as Junaid Ilyas had two for 20, Tabish Khan, Babar Rehman and Tariq Haroon had one each.
In the fourth match of the day played at Pindi Stadium, Peshawar beat Lahore Whites by three wickets in a nail-biting thriller.
Lahore Whites captain Azhar Ali won the toss and straightaway decided to bat first. Despite having a strong batting side, Lahore could only post 165 on a pitch where 200+ score was quite possible.
Ahmed Shehzad with 59 of 42 and Talat Husain’s 64 of 39 were top scorer from Lahore’s side. Veteran All-rounder Mohammad Hafeez and hard hitter Umar Akmal were sent to pavilion on 1 and 0 respectively.
Peshawar in response had a shaky start when they lost first 4 wickets in less than 50 runs. However Iftikhar Ahmed’s 59 of 39 brought the match closer which was given finish touches by Adil Amin.
At that point in time, match hung in the balance but Imran Khan (Jr) got six runs in the final over to win it for defending champions Peshawar.
In the final match of the day, Karachi Blues snatched win from the jaws of defeat when they achieved Islamabad’s 176 for six in 19.4 overs by getting 180 runs for the loss of nine wickets. Khurrum Manzoor played the key role in the win by making 62 match winning runs in 42 balls. After quick fall of two wickets, Fawad Alam came in to support Khurrum and the two built the score from 44 for two to 104 for three. The partnership was broken with the departure of Khurrum who before leave the crease hit seven fours and three sixes. Shahid Afridi, who relinquished his captaincy to Sarfraz Ahmed, joined Fawad and they took the score to 131. Shahid in his trademark style got one four and one six in his 16 runs before giving a catch. After Sarfraz fell cheaply and Fawad made 33 in 29 balls, wickets started to fall in quick succession. Only then Anwar Ali 21 and Abdul Ameer completed the score that looked impregnable at one occasion. Imad Wasim three for 26 and Shehzad Azam two for 20 could not save the match.
Karachi was chasing 176 runs made by Islamabad. Shahid Yousuf and Babar Azam lifted the score from two for 13 to 106 for three. Babar was the first to leave the crease after getting 43 runs while Shahid stayed behind to complete his 57 runs in 39 balls. Later Imad Wasim 16, Zohaib Ahmed 26 and Zafar Gohar 13 played their part with the bat. Rumman Raees got two wickets from Karachi side.
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