FAISALABAD - May 13, 2015: Rawalpindi Rams stunned Shoaib Malik-led Sialkot Stallions when they grabbed a 25-run win here in the second match of the day on Wednesday in the Cool & Cool Presents Haier Super8 T20 Cup 2015 being played here at Iqbal Stadium.
Stallions who were heavily relied on Malik due to his superlative performance, crumbled to 127 for nine in 20 overs, in reply to Rams 152 all out in 20 overs.
Malik, star of Stallions previous match, was clean bowled by Mohammad Amir, for one run in the 4th over of the innings. Stallions, one of the favourites of the tournament failed to settle down and fell like nine pins after Malik was bowled. None of their batsmen showed promise against the team work put on display by the Rams. Apart from Ayaz Tasawwar, who top scored with unbeaten 64 runs, Numan Anwar put 15 on board, Sultan Ahmed 12 and Usama Mir 11 were the Stallions who stayed at the wicket but for a while, otherwise all proved to have weak legs. Ayaz took 50 balls to have his performance marked. He hit five boundaries and four sixes to remain not out. Apart from Zahid Mansoor, all the Rams bowlers snared a wicket or two. M Asghar took three wickets while Samiullah had two and Sohail Tanvir, M Amir and Hammad Azam shared one wicket apiece.
Stallions’ captain, Malik misjudged the conditions and decided to field first. To the surprise of all, Rams that punctuated 152 runs despite Bilawal Bhatti’s extraordinary spell of four for 27 and Usama’s equally important three wickets for 21 runs, Stallions became a source of embarrassment for its region.
For Rams, Khurrum Shahzad had an extended stay at the crease. He made 33-ball 38, in which he timed three sixes and two fours. The contributions of Naved Malik 13, Tayyab Riaz 11, Zahid Mansoor 28, Mohammad Nawaz 28 and Jamal Anwar 22 were the clear proof of the logic that only team work can undo efforts of the best of the best opposition. So the good work done by the batsmen was clearly backed up by their bowlers.
