MULTAN: Karachi Blues brought the winning streak of Peshawar to an end with a thrilling three-run win in the Cool and Cool Present Jazz National T20 Cup match here at Multan Stadium on Thursday.
Fazal Subhan started hammering Peshawar bowlers right from the word go hitting 53 runs in 34 balls to lead his team’s total to 164 for six and in reply Peshawar region fought reasonably well to get to 161 for seven with a near miss innings from Iftikhar Ahmed.
Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Asghar trapped two players each of Peshawar batting line up while one each fell in favour of Ramman Raees and Fawad Alam to get away with a win for Karachi.
Peshawar openers Rafatullah and Israrullah started off their chase with reasonable well approach and together they produced 33 runs. Israr score 21 runs with three fours to his credit in 15 balls. Later Rafatullah joined in by Iftikhar Ahmed and they developed an innings that nearly took away the match. Rafat stayed at the crease to face 36 balls to get 34 runs while Iftikhar with five sixes and two fours score brilliant 65 in 42 balls. But after Rafat and Iftikhar were out, the remaining batsmen failed to maintain the required average with thanks to tight bowling from Ajmal and Asghar.
Zohaib Khan was the only other batsman who could blast into double figures making 11 runs.
Earlier, Karachi had a perfect start to its campaign in which their opener Fazal played a lead role. He was supported by Shahzaib Hassan with 20 runs.
Khurrum Manzoor played his part with the bat by adding 21 runs but the score was consolidated by Ali Khan and Saifullah Bangash with their unbeaten 31 and 24 runs innings.
Peshawar bowling attack was led by Zohaib Khan who had two wickets while Waqas Maqsood, Imran Khalid, Imran Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed shared one wicket each.
