Southern Punjab were off to a horrible start when they lost Shan Masood for a duck
12 October, 2020
Photo Courtesy: PCB
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa dominated Southern Punjab enroute to a 73-run victory in their National T20 Cup encounter at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi on Monday.
Chasing an imposing target of 206 runs, Southern Punjab were off to a horrible start when they lost their captain and opening batsman Shan Masood for a duck who was removed by fast-bowler Shaheen Shah in the first over of the chase.
Batsmen Zain Abbas (34), Zeeshan Ashraf (10), Sohaib Maqsood (17), Khushdil Shah (2) Hussain Talat (13) tried to string together brief partnerships but wickets continues to fall as Southern Punjab’s chase derailed under the scoreboard pressure.
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Tailender Mohammad Imran played an enterprising cameo at the end scoring 48 off 29 deliveries as Southern Punjab were swept away after scoring 132 runs in 19.3 overs.
Fast-bowler Junaid Khan was the pick of the bowlers for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after picking up two wickets in four overs at the expense of 31 runs.
Earlier, Southern Punjab won the toss and elected to field first. Captain Mohammad Rizwan (12) did not have much luck in the opening spot and was bowled by Southern Punjab’s fast-bowler Aamer Yamin.
Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez played a slow knock that resulted in 17 runs off 20 deliveries before being removed by Yamin.
Veteran all-rounder Shoaib Malik joined an in-form Fakhar Zaman, who was firing on all cylinders. The opener scored 68 runs off just 34 deliveries with 11 fours and two sixes before being removed by bowler Mohammad Ilyas.
Batsman Iftikhar Ahmed then joined Malik for an enterprising knock of 36 runs off 22 deliveries. The best was yet to come however as batsman Musadiq Ahmed blazed a quickfire unbeaten 33-run knock off just nine deliveries to help propel Khyber Pakhtunkhwa above 200 runs.
Malik remained unbeaten after scoring 33 runs off 28 deliveries while Aamer Yamin was the pick of the bowlers for Southern Punjab after picking up two wickets in four overs at the expense of 36 runs.
