RAWALPINDI – September 09, 2015: Sialkot, Abbottabad, Bahawalpur, Peshawar and Multan were too hot to handle for their respective rivals on day two of the Cool & Cool Present Haier Mobil T20 Cup 2015 being played in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The matches on Wednesday remained one-sided as Multan, Abbottabad, Bahawalpur and Peshawar dominating over their strong opponents with ease.
At Diamond Ground, Islamabad, former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik led Sialkot to emphatic four runs win over Hyderabad. Leading from the front, Malik posted a half century in his team’s 163 for seven and later his team kept Hyderabad under constant control to restrict them at 159 for nine in 20 overs.
Asked to bat, Sialkot were pushed to the wall when their openers Nauman Anwar and yesterday’s hero Mukhtar Ahmed were jolted by Babar Khan in his respective overs. Bilal Asif took things in his hands for Sialkot and developed consolidating score. He made 53 runs but when the score reached 67, Sialkot lost another wicket. This time Ahmed Butt was the victim. He took 37 balls to manage 12 runs and was sent packing by Nasir Awais. Bilal and Malik then got a rousing start to Sialkot’s innings when the two shared a 55 runs partnership for the fourth wicket. Bilal got 53 runs in 39 balls and Malik sliced the ball 28 times to get 52 runs. As Bilal had seven fours and a six in his half century, Malik registered 55 runs in 28 balls, four of which were fours and three sixes. As his partner Bilal went back to the pavilion, Haris Sohail joined Malik to maintain the flow of runs. Haris made 25 runs and later Amad Butt remained not out at 13. Babar Khan and Nauman Ali shared two wickets each while Nasir Awais and Kashif Bhatti had one victim to their credit.
In their chase of the target, Hyderabad though got double figures from eight of their batsmen but none of them played to the demand of time. Shoaib Leghari remained the highest scorer when he made 29. Sharjeel Khan 16, Azeem Ghumman 23, Lal Kumar 14, Zeeshan Gul 19, Mir Ali 10, Nauman and Babar 15 each were the other scorers. Amad Butt and Bilal Asif divided six wickets in between them while Sultan Ahmed and Usama Mir had one each.
Abbottabad stunned Lahore Whites by 83 runs at the Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi with thanks to Khalid Usman who grabbed key five wickets of Lahore for Abbottabad to rejoice. Banking on two half centuries from Yasir Hameed and Younis Khan, Abbottabad amassed 198 runs and then reduced Lahore to 115 in 16 overs.
In fact the pressure of 198 runs was too high for the star-studded Lahore team to take and they crashed to the tune of Khalid. Abbottabad openers made full use of dry conditions in which Yasir and Fakhar Zaman together posted 47 runs and when the later was back, Yasir and Younis developed the score to 108 by the 12th over. With the help of nine boundaries and two sixes, Yasir had to his credit 67 runs in 43 balls. But Younis maintained the run rate and also shared another useful partnership with Sajjad Ali before departing off the field for his personal score of 61. In 39 balls, Younis timed eight fours and a six. Sajjad who remained not out at 38 provided a perfect helping hand to Adnan Raees who made 16*. Mohammad Irfan, Mustafa Iqbal and Hussain Talat had success with the ball when they took one wicket each.
As Lahore went towards the target, Abbottabad bowlers kept them struggling for runs. Even Ahmed Shahzad and Azhar Ali could not score freely and fell to Ahmed Jamal and Junaid Khan. Then Khalid started his ripping act taking the wickets of Mohammad Hafeez, Hussain Talat, Saad Nasim in the middle order and later of Aizaz Cheema and Irfan. In between Yasir Shah trapped Umer Akmal and Umer Siddiq.
Only Hafeez came among the runs with 31 while Ahmed Shahzad 16, Akmal 10 and Saad 19 got to double figures. Mustafa Iqbal remained not out in Lahore’s batting which even failed to play the full 20 overs.
Bahawalpur defeated Karachi Whites by 42 runs on day two of the tournament at the Diamond Ground, Islamabad. An all-round performance from Faisal Mubashir lifted the pride and confidence of his team. Faisal and Moinuddin smashed half centuries that took Bahawalpur total to 174 for four in the required overs and then Whites were bowled out for 132 runs in 19.4 overs.
Bahawalpur had early jitters but stabled well when Faisal came to the crease. He got 56 runs and remained not out to also hit five fours and later Moin scored 58 runs to extend the score. His 33 balls innings was the mixture of six fours and five sixes. Aamer Ijaz added useful 31. Tabish Khan, Azam Hussain and Saud Shakeel shared one wicket each from Karachi bowling.
Later when Karachi’s turn to bat came, Bahawalpur attack smashed all their planning and did not let them settle for runs. Only Shaheryar Ghani 32 and Ehsan Ali with 28 runs were the main scorers with small contributions coming from Rameez Raja 12, Mohammad Waqas 14, Faisal Iqbal 10 and Saud Shakeel 15.
Kamran Hussain and Zaheer Siddiqui with two wickets each and Mohammad Imran with one started the damage at the top and later Saadat Munir completed the rout with three wickets. Faisal took one wicket and for his half century also got man of the match award.
Later at night at Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi, Peshawar tamed Faisalabad with a five wickets win. Misbah-ul-Haq led Faisalabad as they crawled to 133 for nine but could not stop Peshawar from reaching 134 for five in 18.5 overs.
Pakistan Test captain Misbah was the highest scorer in Faisalabad batting with 38 runs. The 39 years old batsman hit three boundaries and a six in 33 balls innings. Asif Ali 24 and Khurram Shahzad 22 were the other prominent batsmen in Faisalabad’s line-up, which was ripped apart by Imran Khan Jr who took four wickets for 20. Another Imran Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed shared two wicket each.
Peshawar got the runs going through Iftikhar Ahmed who through his unbeaten 51 runs earned himself man of the match award, hit four fours and two sixes. Israrullah 20, Riffatullah Mohmand 19, Rizwan Ahmed 19, and Musaddaq 14 not out were the other prominent batsmen in the winning act. Success with the ball came in the laps of Imran Khalid 2-22, Saeed Ajmal 1-21, Fahim Ashraf 1-30, Waqas Maqsood 1-30.
Imran Farhat and Kamran Akmal steered Multan to a eight wickets win over Rawalpindi in the last match of the day. They both produced 78 runs for the opening wicket to get 133 for two in 17.5 overs in response to Rawalpindi’s 132 in 19.5 overs.
Kamral, who got 40 runs off boundaries, raced to 51 runs before he was bowled by Hammad Azam. With 10 fours in 35 balls innings he along with Farhat took the shine off the ball to help the coming batsmen get runs with ease.
Farhat on the other hand not only kept his wicket intact but also got other batsmen score to the required run-rate. He made 29 balls 24, helped with three fours. Later Shoaib Maqsood and Naved Yasin overhauled the score making 24 and 28 runs respectively. Hammad Azam sent both the Multan openers back while others in the attack were a total disaster.
Earlier, the opening wicket stand of 46 runs between Nasir Jamshed and Awais Shah was the base of Rawalpindi’s total in an otherwise poor batting display from other players. Awais dominated the whole of the time getting 33 runs in 20 balls. He timed five boundaries and a six. Though getting 11 runs, Nasir, however, supported Awais till the fifth over. Majid Ali, Zulfiqar Babar, Rahat Ali and Kashif Naved silenced Rawalpindi batsmen with two wickets each.
Scorecards:
- Sialkot vs Hyderabad
- Lahore Whites vs Abbottabad
- Bahawalpur vs Karachi Whites
- Peshawar vs Faisalabad
- Rawalpindi vs Multan
