Shahab stars as Abbottabad tame Peshawar in National T20 semis

KARACHI: Abbottabad sealed their spot in the final of the National T20 Cup after upstaging the high-flying Peshawar by seven wickets with Shahab Khan picking up five wickets in the one-sided first semi-final at the National Bank Stadium here on Saturday.

Being into bat, Peshawar which won all its Super-Eight matches, kept losing wickets at regular intervals, which dented their flow to reach a massive score. The inform opener Sahibzada Farhan (15) was shown the door with 30 runs on the board, while 21 runs later Sajjad also got dismissed.

However, Israrullah’s brilliant 75-run inning off 34 balls with three sixes and 10 fours took Peshawar’s score to 169 all out in 19.2 overs. Apart from him, all other batters failed to impress.

For Abbottabad, Aqib and Fayyaz picked two, while the player of the match Shahab took a fiver-fer for 33 runs in four overs.

In reply, Abbottabad provided their team with a 113-run start. Sajjad Ali scored 57 off 29 balls with seven sixes and a four, while Fakhar Zaman remained 79 not out hitting five sixes and eight fours in the 46-ball knock.

After Sajjad’s removal by Mohammad Imran, Kamran Ghulam (4) was removed 13 runs later, but that didn’t dent the Abbottabad’s run-chase as Fakhar and Habib sealed the deal in 17.5 overs.

For Peshawar, Mohammad Imran was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 1-18 in four overs.

Meanwhile, when this story was filed, Karachi Whites and Rawalpindi were contesting in the second semi-final, where Pindi was batting first after winning the toss.