MULTAN: Lahore Whites held Karachi Blues within limits on Tuesday to have a comprehensive 73 runs win in their second phase match of the Cool and Cool Presents Jazz National T20 Cup being played at Multan Stadium.
Lahore Whites batting first gathered 154 runs for the loss of four wickets and then restricted Karachi Blues at 81 in 17.3 overs, thus winning the match by 73 runs. It was for the first time Lahore’s batting reached till the fifth wicket otherwise the top three batsmen, Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal and Umer Akmal were consistently performing with the bat. In today’s match apart from the senior batsmen, it was Kashif Bhatti and Kamran Ghulam who dented the Karachi batting.
The first phase of the tournament was played at Rawalpindi and the second phase started on Mondayat Multan. Over 1000 police personnel have been deputed at Multan Cricket Stadium for security of national T 20 cricket tournament. According to police sources, the police have made foolproof security arrangements at the stadium.
Salman and Kamran stayed put till the score reached 43 but the former captain when reached 12 lost his wicket to Saeed Ajmal. Kamran and Umer then maintained the flow of runs. Kamran got to 39 off 33 balls before handing his catch to Saifullah Bangash off Mohamamd Asghar. He hit four fours and a six. Umer played a controlled but aggressive game at the other end to score 75 runs in 42 balls studded five sixes and six fours. Sikandar Raza contributed 10 runs to the total. Rumman Raees with two wickets while Ajmal and Asghar with one wicket each were the main strikers from Karachi attack.
In their chase, Karachi could not meet the demand of time as Kashif Bhatti did not let them settle right from the start leaving them in tits and bits.
All of the Karachi’s batsmen remained spineless and once the openers were removed by Kashif, none of the recognized players in the line-up could withstand the brunt of Lahore attack. As Kashif controlled the upper order, Kamran Ghulam checked the lower line-up. Both these bowlers had four and three wickets each while Sikandar and Qaiser Ashraf had one each. Saifullah remained the highest scorer from Karachi line up with 19 runs, Fawad Alam 17 and Mohammad Waqas 16 were the only other batsmen who reached double figures.
