RAWALPINDI: Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and national wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal played a sheet anchor role to steer Lahore Whites to a big opening day win against sister outfit Lahore Blues in the second match of the Cool & Cool Presents JAZZ National T20 Cup 2016 first round that started on Thursday at Pindi Stadium.
Coming to open the innings for Whites, the two batsmen shared a 163-runs opening wicket stand to weed off Blues 182 for five by scoring 185 for one with 21 balls to spare.
Salman remained unbeaten at 84 with 13 hits across the ropes and two over it and for that innings he took 55 balls. On the other hand, he got a well-mannered partner in Kamran, who for his 81 runs faced 40 balls and his stay at the crease saw him time 11 fours and two sixes. Once Kamran was back in the pavilion, the remaining deficit was overhauled by his young brother Umer Akmal and Salman. Umer in the process scored 15 runs and remained not out along with Salman to get Lahore Whites a big win. The only wicket that of Kamran was snared by Imran Ali when Blues captain Ahmed Shahzad used seven bowlers and all of them were put to sword by Whites’ batsmen.
Put into bat, Lahore Blues got a good going from their openers Nasir Jamshed and Ahmed Shahzad. They both added 55 runs for the opening wicket. When Shahzad fell at his personal score of 19, Nasir kept the score ticking along Nauman Anwar. Nasir was four shy of his half century when Kashif Bhatti made him bat an easy catch to Umer. His 46 runs came off 20 balls that was excelled with seven fours and two sixes.
Nauman 28, then found a great partner in Naved Yasin who hammered 53 runs. He his six boundaries and a six while facing 40 balls. After Nauman was back in the dressing room, Saad Nasim, 26 joined Naved to get things going for Blues. Amad Butt had three wickets for 30 runs while Kashif Bhatti and Kamran Ghulam shared one wicket each.
