Bahawalpur, Peshawar enter Blind T20 Cricket final

LAHORE: Bahawalpur and Peshawar stormed into the final of (Grade-1) National Bank of Pakistan T-20 Blind Cricket Trophy 2019, Bahawalpur

Two Semifinals of the Trophy were played on Saturday. In the first semi-final played at Dring Stadium, Peshawar beat AJK in a sensational finish. Peshawar reached the target on the last ball of the innings to prevail in the semifinal. In the morning AJK won the toss and decided to bat first. AJK riding on the special ton of Nisar Ali posted 222 runs on the board for the loss of 6 wickets in allotted 20 overs. Nisar Ali made 105 off 54 balls featuring 20 fours. Faisal Mehmood also played well for his 60 runs off 39 balls. For Peshawar, Mohsin Khan was the successful bowler, he took 3 wickets while Shafiullah, Haseenullah and Haroon Khan claimed 1 wicket each.

Peshawar started well and both openers Sanaullah Khan and Haroon Khan shared century opening stand. Haroon Khan’s wicket opened door of fight back to AJK, he was bowled by Arfan Majeed after scoring 58 runs. Sanaullah’s 86 runs off 46 balls helped Peshawar to creep near the target but his wicket fetched another twist in the game. But Mohsin Khan’s 31 balls 51 runs enabled his team to cross the line on the last ball of the innings in a nail biting finish. Arfan Majeed took 2 wickets and Idrees Saleem claimed one.

Man of the Match award went to Mohsin Khan. In the second semifinal, Bahawalpur won by 68 runs. Islamabad won the toss and put Bahawalpur into bat. Islamabad put tremendous pressure in first 6 overs of the game. Islamabad dismissed openers Moeen Aslam and Muhammad Ijaz cheaply they made 4 runs and 12 runs respectively. Muhammad Ayyaz also got out 14 runs. Thereafter, Muhammad Rashid and Zafar Iqbal played exceptionally well and built 122 runs partnership for 4th wicket and took their team out of whirlpool. Muhammad Rashid made 77 runs off 33 balls and Zafar Iqbal scored 76 off 38 balls. Muhammad Daniyal scored 14 runs and Shahzaib made 10 runs. Bahawalpur in their 20 overs made 264 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Anees Javed, Yasir Andleeb, Hasnain Shamim took a wicket a piece. Islamabad in reply scored 196 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. Shahzaib Hasan scored 61 runs off 37 balls and Anees Javed made 51 runs. Ijaz and Shahzaib took 2 wickets each. Zafar Iqbal was declared the man of the match. The Final will be played between Peshawar vs Bahawalpur at Dring Stadium, Bahawalpur on Sunday.