National T20 Cup: Haider, Zeeshan star in Northern’s win over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The duo partnered for a 180-run partnership which goes down as the highest second wicket partnership in the history of the National T20 Cup

PHOTO: PCB

Northern registered a 79-run win over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) in the first match of the 2020 National T20 Cup on Wednesday.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were jolted early while chasing 243, as left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz clean bowled the dangerous Fakhar Zaman in the first over for 5.

KPK captain Mohammad Rizwan and veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez were only able to contribute 17 and 6 respectively, with the chasing side reeling at 46 for 3 in the seventh over.

Opener Sahibzada Farhan, who top-scored with 62 for KPK, and all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed (28) tried to resurrect the innings and up the ante, but the target was too far away from their reach.

KPK could only muster 163 for 9 at the end of their 20 overs, with Musa Khan bagging three wickets while Sohail Tanvir and Mohammad Nawaz claiming 2 wickets each for Northern.

Earlier, Northern scored 242/3 in their allotted 20 overs, which is the second highest T20 total in Pakistan, after electing to bat first.

Northern were off to a blistering start courtesy of right-hand batsman Ali Imran. However, Imran miscued one straight to Shoaib Malik in the second over of left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi and departed for 13.

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19-year-old Haider Ali and 23-year-old Zeeshan Malik then partnered for a 180-run partnership which goes down as the highest second wicket partnership in the history of the National T20 Cup. Previous best was between an unbeaten 169-run stand between Yasir Hameed and Younis Khan in 2014.

Haider fell 10 short of a deserving century in an attempt to accelerate the innings and was caught at long on by Mohammad Mohsin on the bowling of left-arm pacer Junaid Khan. After dismissing Haider, Junaid Khan also removed Zeeshan Malik for 77 in the 18^th over.

Hard-hitting batsman Asif Ali (23 not out from 14) and left-hand batsman Umar Amin (14 not out from 6) didn’t take much time to settle as they played entertaining cameos to take Northern to a mammoth total.

Haider was adjudged player of the match for his magnificent knock.

“My aim is to now build on this start and play a vital role in helping my side defend the title,” said Haider.