RAWALPINDI - September 1, 2015: Larkana Region, Lahore Blues and Karachi Blues had the opening day honours as the Cool & Cool Present Haier Q8 T20 Cup 2015 blasted into action here at Pindi Stadium on Tuesday.
On day one of the qualifying round for the 12-team Cool & Cool Present Haier Mobile T20 Cup 2015-16, Larkana Region grabbed an easy seven wickets win against Quetta Region, Lahore Blues thrashed Kashmir Region by 82 runs and Karachi Blues annexed eight runs win over FATA Region.
The day started off with a brilliant performance from Larkana against Quetta. Electing to bat, Quetta banked on 56-ball unbeaten 79 runs innings from Bismillah Khan that lifted their total to 141 for four in 20 overs. But Larkana relied heavily on Asif Babar’s prowess to achieve the score in 16.3 overs, losing three wickets.
Larkana though not solid but had a cautious start to its innings when their openers Zafar Ali (17) and Javed Bhutto (27) added 39 runs for the first wicket but were separated by Jalat Khan and Muhammad Irfan respectively. Asif, coming down at number three position, had complete control of the situation and reached 74 runs in 37 balls to make the win easy. Jalat, Irfan and Sher Hasan shared one wicket each but all the bowlers used by Quetta failed to stop Asif, who was later, named man of the match.
Earlier, Bismillah was supported by batsman Ramiz Raja towards the end of the innings, who gathered 21 runs, which provided a ray of hope for Quetta. Bismillah in his 79 runs innings smashed eight fours and one six. Bismillah and Zubair Khan started off well for Quetta but the latter went back to the pavilion for 14, thanks to Ali Asghar’s accurate bowling. He later also took the wicket of Mohibullah and Larkana’s Imran Chandio had Ismaeel Khan to put Quetta in trouble. But Bismillah and Ramiz showed guts to steady the score. When Ramiz was bowled by Zahid Mahmood, Bisbillah found a good partner in Jalat, who remained not out at 17.
In the second match of the day, Lahore Blues started off with a bang in which Sami Aslam, Imamul Haq and Mohammad Akhlaq played a vital role with the bat while Salman Agha, Zia-ul-Haq and Attaullah performed brilliantly with the ball in their team’s big victory over Kashmir, which folded at 69 in the 15th over.
Opting to bat, Lahore smashed 151 runs in 20 overs losing four wickets. Sami (30) and Imam (45) manicured a perfect base in Lahore’s total which was developed later on by Akhlaq with his half century. Akhlaq took 32 balls to reach 51 runs made with the help of two fours and three sixes. Raza Ali (12) and Muhammad Saeed (6*) extended useful contribution in the total. Usman Maroof, with two wickets, while Irfan Talib and Saad Altaf with one wicket each, made inroads in Lahore batting.
In reply, Kashmir failed to settle before the wondrous line and length of Zia and Ata in the starting overs and later Salman’s wicket to wicket bowling checked their batting. Usman Maroof (11), Hasan Raza (15), Irfan Talib (22) were the only Kashmir batsmen who reached double figures.
In the final match of the day, Karachi Blues smashed FATA all ends by first scoring 153 runs for seven wickets and then contained their opponents at 145 runs for seven in the given quota of overs.
Put into bat, Karachi Blues received three small partnerships of 21, 20 and 20 in between Khurrum Manzoor and Shahzaib Hasan, Shahzaib and Fawad Alam and later between Mohammad Sami and Sarfraz Ahmed respectively for the first, fourth and seventh wicket. And in those small stands, Shahzaib played a leading role with his half century while Khurrum added useful 21 runs, Fawad (32) and Sarfraz 24 not out to Blues total. Shahzaib hit three fours and two sixes while facing 44 balls on way to his 53. Sami contributed 12 runs in five balls that also had one four and a six to his credit.
As Asif Afridi, Khushdil Shah and Mohammad Irfan took one wicket each for FATA, Mohammad Sarwar finished with the figures of four for 32 in four overs.
In reply, FATA played almost to the demand of match but frequent fall of their wickets kept them from taking away the game. Fawad Khan and Khushdil played well enough to surprise Blues attack with 39 and 33 runs respectively. But they were not fortunate enough to find a good partner to press for a win. Majid Khan (11), Rehan Afridi (19) and Zeeshan Khan (18) were the other FATA scorers. But in the end experienced bowling attack of Blues consisting of Sami, Anwar Ali, Rumman Raees and Shahzaib prevailed over FATA batting lineup. Anwar and Raees shared two wickets each while Sami and Shahzaib finished with one wicket apiece.
