Karachi Whites topple Peshawar by 21 runs

KARACHI: Shoaib Malik and Khurram Manzoor blasted fine fifties and Arshad Iqbal bowled splendidly to enable Karachi Whites to surge to the summit when they overwhelmed Peshawar by 21 runs in their third outing of the National T20 Cup 2018 at Multan Cricket Stadium in Multan on Saturday.

With the second win from three games Karachi Whites moved to four points but lead Lahore Whites (4 points), Multan (4 points) and Rawalpindi (4 points) on net run-rate.

Former Pakistan’s skipper Malik (71*) and in-form Khurram (53) catapulted Karachi Whites to 161-3 in the allotted 20 overs after being invited to bat first.

Rookie medium pacer Arshad then got 3-17 in four overs to enable Karachi Whites to dismiss Peshawar for 140.

Chasing a stiff target Fawad Khan (42) and Israrullah (30) put a solid foundation for Peshawar, sharing 58 runs off only 39 balls for the first wicket.

Irregular bowler Akbar-ur-Rehman provided a breakthrough to Karachi Whites when he got rid of dangerous Fawad in the seventh over. Fawad hammered three sixes and four fours in his blistering 25-ball knock.

Akbar then had Israrullah in the tenth over to bring Karachi Whites back in the game. The left-handed Israrullah, who was also dropped in the deep off the bowing of Rahat Ali, smacked four fours from 32 deliveries.

However after that Peshawar lost their control, losing wickets at regular intervals before being restricted well away of the target.

Raees Ahmed, who came at No 4, offered some resistance, scoring 25-ball 31 which contained four fours to make Peshawar sweat for the victory. Arshad was ably backed by Akbar who, in fact, spurred Peshawar’s collapse by removing both the well-set openers, finishing with 2-13 in three overs. Discarded international Rahat Ali remained the most expensive of bowlers for Karachi Whites as he took 1-42 in four overs. Earlier, Malik and Khurram did a fine job with the willow to take Karachi Whites to a fighting total.

Khurram, who fell in the 15th over of the innings, smacked seven fours in his 48-ball third successive fifty in this event so far. Malik, however, did brutal hitting, smashing two sixes and six fours in his explosive 42-ball unfinished feat. Test pacer Imran Khan (1-31 in 3), Imran Khan Junior (1-41 in 4) and Mohammad Junaid (1-24 in 4) were the successful bowlers. Malik was adjudged as Man-of-the Match.

Earlier in the day, after losing their previous two outings quite closely, FATA, eventually, opened their account after beating strong Multan by five wickets thanks to fine performances from Mohammad Irfan Junior and Samiullah. Medium-pacer Irfan produced his career-best figures, taking 5-17 in three overs to restrict Multan to 136-9. Irfan’s last four wickets came in the final over of the innings. Mohammad Mohsin top-scored 32-ball 56 for Multan, striking seven fours and one six in his fiery 32-ball knock. Samiullah Junior then smashed 49-ball 58 with two sixes and four fours as FATA raced to the target with four balls to spare after losing five wickets.

Discarded international spinner Zulfiqar Babar (2-21) and leggie Mohammad Irfan Khan (2-26) were the successful bowlers. Irfan Junior was declared Man-of-the-Match for his superb bowling. FATA’s captain Asif Afridi said the team played according to the plan. “Today we played as per plan and remained successful. We had a long meeting last night and gave confidence to the batsmen. Samiullah batted according to the plan. We also sent Sohail Akhtar down the order as he is a hard hitting batsman and that worked also,” Asif said. “Our key players Khushdil Shah and Adil Amin will also be available for the next match and Insha-Allah we will win that match too,” Asif said. Meanwhile Multan skipper Sohaib Maqsood credited FATA for the way they played. “FATA have been a good team. They also lost their previous two games closely. After having faced hiccups in the top order we recovered in the middle and it was expected that we would be able to reach 150 and plus but we could not score much in the last two overs that hurt us,” Sohaib said.

“Toss is vital but it should not be an excuse when you lose the toss. At noon the pitch also becomes easy and that also matters. We will try our level best to do something better in the next match,” discarded hard-hitting international batsman Sohaib said.

Today’s fixtures: Lahore Whites v Karachi Whites (11am), Lahore Blues v Multan (3pm).