RAWALPINDI – September 10, 2015: As Karachi Blues, Multan, Peshawar, Rawalpindi eased past their rivals with little trouble, Bahawalpur annexed a nail-biter on Thursday.
On the day in the Cool & Cool Present Haier Mobil T20 Cup 2015 being played in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Bahawalpur clinched a thriller in a super over against Hyderabad at the Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi while Karachi Blues shocked Faisalabad and Multan controlled Sialkot at Diamond ground Islamabad. In the other matches Peshawar prevailed over Islamabad and Rawapindi defeated Karachi Whites.
The day started with a thrilling encounter between Bahawalpur and Hyderabad teams which ended in favour of Bahawalpur.
Asked to play first at the Pindi Stadium, Bahawalpur piled up 160 runs for four wickets and interestingly Hyderabad fought all ends to tie the match on the final ball. As the match was pushed into the superover, Bahawalpur won the one-over eliminator.
Faisal Mubashir hammered an unbeaten 61 runs to provide authority to Bahawalpur total. The performance that earned him man of the match award came in 47 balls in which he also hit seven boundaries. He was supported by Riyasat Ali with brisk 45, came with the help of three fours and the same number of sixes in his 30 balls stay at the crease. Muhammad Yasir fired up 42 runs studded with five fours and a six that was hit in 30 balls.
Hyderabad bowling attack led by Mir Ali Khan, Babar Khan and Nasir Awais earned respect with two, one and one wicket respectively.
In reply, Hyderabad fought through Azeem Ghumman and Faisal Athar who hit half centuries. Hyderabad too got 160 runs in the final ball to tie the match losing five wickets.
Ghumman and Faisal laid a foundation to a perfect start to the chase with 50 runs each which was later developed by Sharjeel Khan and Shoaib Leghari. Ghumman in his 50 runs timed seven boundaries and two sixes while Faisal’s half century came off 40 balls and with the support of five hits across the rope.
Sharjeel Khan with four shots across the rope and two over it made 31 in 19 balls while Shoaib Leghari’s 25 came in as many balls. He smashed one four and two sixes.
In the dramatic last over Hyderabad required five runs but Zahir Siddiqui nipped every ball perfectly giving away a single and a double but unfortunately his wide ball conceded two runs that tied the match. He also took a key wicket of Shoaib Leghari and then earned a runs out of Zeeshan Gul on the final ball. Sadaat Munir had two wickets while Zahir Siddiqui had one and so did Muhammad Imran.
In the super over, Hyderabad’s Sharjeel and Shoaib faced Zahir and could make two runs. In the process Sharjeel was out and was replaced by Mir Ali who too was run out, giving Bahawalpur three runs to win the match. Faisal and Kamran Hussain came in to bat for Bahawalpur while facing Nauman Ali. Faisal first took two runs and on the fourth ball smashed a boundary to grab the win.
At Daimond Ground, Islamabad, Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq led Faisalabad team suffered their second defeat of the tournament this time by seven wickets. Playing against Karachi Blues, Faisalabad muscled up just 158 runs for the loss of five wickets but Karachi achieved 160 runs in 18.2 overs for the loss of three wickets.
Karachi invited Faisalabad to bat first but they suffered early setbacks with the fall of Mohammad Shahid Khan and Raheel Ameer (24, 5x4s, 17 balls). Khurrum Shahzad and Asif Ali acted as savior for the team. Khurrum remained stuck at the crease for 54 minutes to get 22 runs while Asif hammered 40 off 29 balls. As Khurrum hit one four only, Asif got two boundaries and three sixes. Even their captain Misbah-ul-Haq could not play to the potential and made 29 in 18 balls hitting two fours. Ruman Raees and Abdul Ameer shared two wickets each.
With a required run rate of 7.9, Karachi Blues played with an average of 8.73 to get 160 with four balls to spare. Khalid Latif played a lead role in the win getting unbeaten 71 runs. Khurram Manzoor started well for Karachi with 47 and both Khurrum and Khalid shared 85 runs for the second wicket. Khurrum in his 45 balls innings calculated four boundaries and a six while Khalid had to his credit six boundaries and four mighty sixes as he faced 44 balls. Once Khurrum was out, Anwar Ali joined the crease with Khalid to get the target. Anwar remained not out at 11-ball 22 with two hits across the rope and one over it. Saeed Ajmal, Samiullah Niazi and Ehsan Adil struggled to get one wicket each for Faisalabad attack.
In a game of attrition, Multan proved much stronger than Sialkot at Diamond Ground, when they took away the match by seven runs.
Sialkot after winning the toss, chose to field first on a slow-looking track. However Multan produced desired runs which were enough to fight for when they reached 162 for seven. Left-arm opening batsman Imran Farhat went cheaply but Kamran Akmal produced a breath-taking 35-ball 51 supported with 19 boundaries. He was also the top scorer in both the teams. Shoaib Maqsood and Naved Yasin with 24 and 26 runs respectively supported the total. Bilal Asif was the major destroyer in Sialkot bowling when he took three wickets while Shoaib Malik got two wickets and Hasan Ali had one.
Sialkot in reply looked lethargic right from the start and wilted in pursuit of the target making 155 runs for nine wickets in 20 overs. Haris Sohail, Shoaib Malik and Usama Mir showed some guts to get 43, 43 and 30 runs respectively. Majid Ali claimed three wickets while Aamer Yamin and Rizwan Haider snared two wickets each and Rahat Ali had one.
Multan’s captain Kamran Akmal was declared man Of the match for his brilliant 51 of 35 balls.
Peshawar on the other hand easily defeated Islamabad by 7 wickets in 17.3 overs at Pindi Stadium.
Islamabad captain Immad Wasim won the toss and chose to bat first and his team set a huge total of 182 for Peshawar in their 20 overs losing two wickets.
Afaq Rahim and Babar Azam made blistering half centuries, Afaq scored 77 runs of just 52 balls and Babar Azam scored 60 off 49 balls.
In reply to target Peshawar chased down the target quite comfortably with 15 balls left in their innings. Riffatullah made 61 runs of just 35 balls and Musadiq Ahmed finished the match in style he scored 57 of 18 just balls. Musadiq Ahmed was named man of the match.
Rawalpindi defeated Karachi Whites by 14 runs to end the day’s matches. Rawalpindi got huge 205 runs in 20 overs and lost three wickets and then saw Karachi Whites reach 191 runs for six. Nasir Jamshed carried the bat all through the 20 overs to hammer the first century of the tournament. Studded with 13 fours and two sixes, he took 61 balls to reach unbeaten 104 runs. Throughout his stay at the crease, he saw Awaiz Zia score 13 runs, Naved Malik 18, Umer Amin getting a century off 32 balls that included four fours and two sixes and Hammad Azam 7 not out to post their total with an average of 10.25.
Tabish Khan, Junaid Ilyas and Babar Rehman chipped in with one wicket apiece.
Karachi Whites started of just below the required average. Their openers Ahsan Ali and Rameez Raja junior together made 68 runs. Ahsan scored 37 in 24 balls while Rameez remained at the crease a little bit longer to score 77 runs in 48 balls. His was an innings of some class as he timed nine boundaries and three sixes. But the later coming batsmen did not show resolve and kept losing wickets at frequent intervals. Sheharyar Ghani 13, Faisal Iqbal 29 and Babar Rehman 13 were the prominent scorers.
Mohammad Aamir took two wickets while Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Mohammad Asghar and Hammad Azam shared one wicket each. Nasir got man of the match award.
