RLCA beat Canadian Seniors by seven wickets

KARACHI: The visiting Canadian Seniors were defeated by seven wickets by Rashid Latif Cricket Academy (RLCA) in their last match of the Karachi leg of the Pakistan tour here at the UBL Sports Complex the other day.

According to the information made available by the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA) here on Monday, the 15-member Canadian squad of over-40 cricketers will now be moving to Lahore where they will be playing matches against Lahore Gymkhana, Turk Plast, Amar Cables and Punjab Veterans before returning home on February 23.

Electing to bat first after winning the toss, the visitors lost wickets upfront. Half of the side was back in the hut with only 62 runs on the board. They were eventually bowled out for 148 on the last ball of the innings.

Skipper Talal Iqbal, whose brilliant knock against Gold Bridge Media earned the visitors their only victory of the tour so far, extended his fine form as he remained undefeated on 45 off 28 balls with the help of six boundaries.

Wicketkeeper Rizwan Qayyum (33 off 29 balls) was the only other Canadian batsman to come to terms with the RLCA spin trio of Abdul Qadir (3-21), Asim Jah (2-7) and Nadeem Khan (2-15).

RLCA lost their captain Asim Jah early but his opening partner Asif Siddiqui smashed one six and eight fours in his 57 off 50 balls to keep them in front.Mahmood Hamid contributed 38 off 34 balls and the momentum was sustained by the pair of Saif Khan and Aziz-ur-Rahman, who finished unbeaten on 20 and 18, respectively, as the winning runs came with 5.4 overs to spare. Kamran Nabi and Raja Ikram were the successful bowlers for the visitors.