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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Wahab’s all-round show helps Southern Punjab edge KP

By Alam Zeb Safi
October 16, 2019

KARACHI: Wahab Riaz’s all-round display enabled Southern Punjab to pull off their first win from two games when they recovered from a precarious situation to edge past Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by four wickets in their day-night game of the National T20 Cup at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad, on Tuesday.

Test cricketer Wahab first took 3-28 in his four overs to restrict KP to 154-5. He then smashed a fiery 17-ball 42 not out to enable Southern Punjab to achieve the target with nine balls to spare. The top order of KP, who opted to bat first, failed to do well.

Skipper Mohammad Rizwan (45) and left-handed hard-hitting batsman Khushdil Shah (56*) added 83 runs for the fifth wicket to boost their team’s total. Khushdil hammered five fours and three sixes in his 32-ball knock. Rizwan smacked four fours and a six from 40 deliveries.

Southern Punjab were reeling at 51-5, at one stage, in response. But Wahab and Saif Badar (49*) made the tough task easy with a 104-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Wahab hammered five fours and two sixes in his match-winning knock. Saif cracked four fours and a six from just 35 balls.

Spinner Mohammad Mohsin once again did well, returning with decent figures of 3-37. In the other game, an unbeaten 111 from 63 balls by Ahmed Shehzad helped Central Punjab to a four-wicket win over Northern.

Set to score 223, Central Punjab chased down the total on the penultimate ball of the match. Opener Ahmed played an instrumental role in the run-chase, hitting 13 fours and three sixes to guide Central Punjab to their first win of the tournament. The next best scorer in the Central Punjab innings was Saad Nasim, who made 29 from 20 balls with three fours and a six.

Faheem Ashraf lofted two sixes and a four in his 28, which came off 16 balls. Northern’s captain Imad Wasim was the pick of the bowlers with 3-38.

Northern had scored 222-6 in 20 overs after deciding to bat first. Asif Ali hammered a blistering 35-ball 93 with four fours and ten sixes. Mohammad Nawaz scored 51 off 35 balls, cracking four sixes and a four as the pair stitched a 107-run partnership for the third wicket. Faheem took three wickets for 44 runs.

Waqas Maqsood, Nasim Shah and Usman Qadir took a wicket each. KP will face Sindh and Balochistan will lock horns with Central Punjab on Wednesday (today) . In the Second XI T20 event, here at National Stadium, Southern Punjab defeated KP by three wickets.

Southern Punjab chased the 198-run target in the last over after losing seven wickets. Zeeshan Ashraf followed up his century in the previous game with 26-ball 54, smacking four sixes and four fours.

Zain Abbas made 47. Khalid Usman got two wickets. Earlier, Nabi Gul hammered 60-ball 94 with three sixes and ten fours to shepherd KP to 197-6. Mohammad Imran claimed three wickets.

In the other game, Northern downed Central Punjab by 19 runs. Northern posted 162 all out with Faizan Riaz (34) and Nouman Ali (33) impressing with the bat. Spinner Reza Ali Dar got exceptional figures of 7-29. His feat included a hat-trick, which he achieved on the last three balls of the innings.

In response, Central Punjab managed 143-9. Usman Salahuddin belted 21-ball 27 and Mohammad Saad made 24. Osama Mir got three wickets. Raza Hasan and Sadaf Hussain picked two wickets each.