Misbah’s show downs Rivo Mobile in nail-biting clash

KARACHI: Misbah Khan’s fine all-round performance guided defending champions Omar Cricket Club to a thrilling one-run victory over Rivo Mobile in their Group A encounter of Naya Nazimabad Ramazan Cup Twenty20 Cricket Tournament 2015 here at the Lawai Stadium the other day.
Misbah, adjudged Man of the Match, contributed a sedate 15 off 38 balls in the Omar CC total of 120 in 20 overs and then picked up three wickets for 12 runs with his off-spin to restrict the opponents to 119 for nine.
Omar CC and Rivo Mobile, the finalists of last year’s tournament, produced another nail-biting tie. The trio of Zahid Mansoor (3-20), Umar Amin (2-20) and Samiullah (2-33) sent Omar CC crashing to 120 all out with Fazal Subhan (22 off 27 balls) being the top scorer.
Rivo Mobile were not allowed to reach the modest target despite fine knocks from Ali Waqas (28 off 30 balls) and Naved Malik (25 off 12 balls) as the innings was wrecked by Misbah Khan (3-12) and Zafar Gohar (2-30).
Meanwhile, Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) advanced into the quarter-finals with their third successive win in league outings.
DIB became the Group C champions by defeating Shaboo Stars Quetta by three wickets. The winners of the match between Shaboo Stars and Candyland will take the other quarter-final slot from the group.
Batting first, after winning the toss, Shaboo Stars were restricted to a modest total of 108 for nine in the allotted 20 overs with Badar Ali (25), Ali Raza (19) and Atif Maqbool (17) doing the bulk of the scoring as the innings was wrecked by left-arm spinner Wasim Ali (3-15), medium-pacer Zahoor Khan (3-15) and off-spinner Kamran Ghulam (2-15).
DIB struggled to reach what had looked like an easy target. Opener Ahsan Ali (43 off 40 balls) played a responsible knock but the middle-order collapse opened up the game. Ammar Hasan (35 off 45 balls) played sensibly to steer the bankers to victory. He was adjudged Man of the Match.