RAWALPINDI – September 13, 2015: Sialkot, Karachi Blues, Peshawar and Multan reached the semi-finals of the Cool & Cool Present Haier Mobil T20 Cup 2015 on Sunday.
The tournament being played here at the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, saw Lahore Whites edge aside Faisalabad by six wickets, Sialkot thrashed Bahawalpur by 10 wickets, Peshawar prevailed over Karachi Blues by seven wickets, Abbottabad stunned Islamabad by six wickets and Hyderabad fought their way to a 2 wickets win against Rawalpindi.
In the first semi-final, Multan will take on Karachi Blues while Sialkot collide with Peshawar in the second match.
Azhar Ali, Umer Siddiq and Saad Nasim with a combined effort brought victory for Lahore Whites against Faisalabad at Pindi Stadium. Chasing Faisalabad’s 140 runs for seven wickets in 20 overs, Lahore reached the target in 18.4 overs, losing four wickets.
Starting off from one for two runs, Lahore came in the match through the joint efforts of Azhar and Umer. The two produced 74 runs for the second wicket. The runs flow halted only when Umer was trapped LBW by Jahandad Khan for 34 runs. After an addition of four runs, Azhar too was taken before the wickets by Imran Khalid at 35. Umar Akmal and Saad Nasim took the charge of the situation and raised the score to 121. It was Akmal that wilted for 16 runs but Saad kept on playing along with Hussain Talat till the score was chased. Saad made 37 and Talat got eight runs and both remained not out. Ehsan Adil managed to get two wickets while one each went Imran Khalid and Jahandad Khan’s way.
Earlier, Lahore’s bowling attack led by Mohammad Irfan, Sajid Wattoo, Imran Ali and Azhar Ali kept Faisalabad quite enough to achieve the score easily.
Apart from an unbeaten 87 from Raheel Ameer, who was later declared the man of the match, there was no other Faisalabad batsman to have come among the runs. Tanvir Javed 10, and Ali Shan 17 were the other Faisalabad bats who reached double figures. Raheel had 55 ball in reaching his score that was also supported by three fours and six sixes.
Irfan had three wickets, Sajid got two while Azhar and Eshan shared one wicket each.
Sialkot in its 10 wickets win with 74 balls to spare, first restricted Bahawalpur to 96 runs for seven and later managed 102 runs in reply without losing any wickets.
Hasan Ali was the pick of bowlers from Sialkot attack when he grabbed four wickets while Usama Mir had two. Kamran Hussain with 43 runs in 33 balls was the highest scorer from the losing side. Other prominent scorers in their line up were Moinuddin 23 and Mohammad Imran 10.
In reply to a very low score, Sialkot openers achieved the score in 7.4 overs. Mukhtar Ahmed hit a half century. He completed 55 runs in 25 balls hitting nine fours and a six while his partner Nauman Anwar made 45 runs 23 balls. His innings was supported by six fours and two sixes. These two Sialkot batsmen played with an average of 13.30 runs per over.
In Peshawar’s win over Karachi Blues Israrullah and Mohamamd Rizwan played a vital role with the bat. Chasing Karachi’s 156 runs for seven in 20 overs, Peshawar achieved the score losing three wickets in 18 overs.
Israr in his 52 balls innings smashed 82 runs studded with 13 boundaries. Iftikhar Ahmed 19 and Mohammad Rizwan 40 not out made the score easy. Ruman Raees, Anwar Ali and Fawad Khan shared one wicket each.
Shahzaib Hasan, Khalid Latif, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, and Sarfraz Ahmed did their best to get a fighting total for Karachi Blues. Khalid with 40 and Fawad with 37 remained the highest scorers for Karachi. Imran Khan took four wickets while Zohaib Khan got two wickets.
Abbottabad had the best off Islamabad when they achieved six wickets win with 29 balls to spare. Islamabad could muster 146 runs in 19 overs. Shan Masood 36 and Shahid Yousuf 34 were prominent with the bat for Islamabad. Afaq Raheem 14, Imad Wasim 13, Zafar Gohar 19 were the other scorers. Mohammad Naeem shone with the ball taking five wickets for 31 runs in four overs. Kamran Ghulam had two while Junaid Khan, Khalid Usman and Sohail Akhtar contented with one apiece.
In their chase of the target, Abbottabad made 152 runs for four wickets in 15.1 overs. Fakhar Zaman with 78 runs remained the highest scorer while Yasir Hameed 16, Sajjad Ali 12, Younis Khan’s 31 made the difference. Fakhar had hit 14 fours and a six while facing 39 balls. Younis however, remained not out at 31, that came off 18 balls. Zohaib, Zafar Gohar, Munir-ur-Rehman and Imad Wasim shared one wicket each.
In the final match of the day, Hyderabad defeated Rawalpindi by two wickets. Rawalpindi got 158 runs for eight wickets and Hyderabad got 160 runs in 19.5 overs. Though there were big scores from other batsmen, but it was Nauman Ali and Babar Khan who made the win possible. As Babar supported at the other end, Nauman eight runs in three balls including a six were enough to grab the win for Hyderabad.
Azeem Ghumman 41, Faisal Athar 31 and Shoaib Laghari 34 laid the base for win in which Sharjeel Khan 14 and Darya Khan 15 provided their support.
Only Yasir Arafar troubled Hyderabad batting with his line and length, which earned him three wickets, while Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Asghar and Hammad Azam shared one wicket each.
As Nasir Jamshed 13 and Awais Zia 21 started well for Rawalpindi, Umer Amin consolidated the innings with his half century. He made 52 runs in 40 balls and was supported by Hammad Azam’s 23. Later Zahid Mansoor contributed valuable 31 runs.
