KARACHI: Four of the five Northern Zone matches of the 18th National Seniors Cup Cricket Tournament 2016-17 being held in the upcountry regions under the auspices of the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA) were decided by an identical margin of eight wickets.
Sialkot Star World humbled Gujrat Seniors by eight wickets at Faraz Ground, Sialkot; Sialkot Seniors tamed Hafizabad Seniors at Municipal Stadium, Hafizabad; Lahore Totally meted out similar treatment to Kasur Seniors at Stags Cricket Ground, Lahore; and Kot Addu Deserts did the same to Multan Lions at Ahmed Yar Municipal Stadium, Kot Addu.
Sialkot Stallion Seniors overpowered Sialkot Happy Seniors by 58 runs.
After restricting Gujrat Seniors to 142 for six in 20 overs which contained major contributions from opener Nisar Ahmed (49 off 43 balls) and Mohammad Shafiq (41 off 34 balls), Sialkot Star World raced to the target in 16.2 overs with opener Rehman Ajmal (60 off 48 balls) and Ata-ur-Rahman (48 off 29 balls) setting up the comfortable victory.
Sialkot Seniors’ off-spinner Qaub Abbas took four wickets for 34 to rout Hafizabad Seniors for 120 in 24.5 overs. The target of 121 was achieved in a matter of 10.3 overs as opener Kashif Malik whacked an unbeaten 76 off 41 balls.
Lahore Totally, despite opener Mazhar Ali’s 77 off 62 balls, were bowled out for 179 in 29 overs by Kasur Seniors for whom off-spinners Shahid Ali (3-30) and Khalid Habib (2-36), and medium-pacer Shahzad Butt (2-19) bowled creditably.
Openers Ameer Ali (64 off 38 balls) and Atif Ranjha (48 off 28 balls) provided a flying start to Kasur Seniors and the momentum was sustained by Shahid (41 off 21) enabling them to reach the target of 180 in only 16 overs.
Kot Addu Desert’s leg-spinner Mehtab Hussain claimed five wickets for 28 runs to send Multan Lions crashing to 162 all out in 24.3 overs. Opener Munawwar Shah hammered 98 off 41 balls to take them to victory with 13 overs to spare.
Kamran Saeed’s fluent unbeaten 84 off 40 balls powered Sialkot Stallion Seniors to a massive total of 251 for seven in 30 overs and they won the match by a convincing margin of 58 runs by limiting Sialkot Happy Seniors to 193 for eight.
