Total Energy storm into semis

KARACHI: Total Energy stormed into the semifinals of the 37th Karachi Gymkhana Ramazan Festival Cricket Tournament 2022 as they overpowered Karachi Gymkhana Whites by 23 runs in their last league outing here at the KG Cricket Ground on Sunday.

Wicketkeeper-opener Adeel Khan clinched the Man of the Match award for the second game running to take Total Energy into the semifinals of the competition, being contested by a total of 10 teams. The preliminary round matches will conclude on Tuesday (tomorrow) and the knockout fixtures are due to commence from Wednesday.

Opting to bat after calling correctly, Total Energy compiled a decent total of 173 for seven in the allotted 20 overs with Adeel Khan (54 off 31 balls), Fahad Jabbar (40 off 28 balls), Arshad Azeem (23 off 24 balls) and Mazhar Hussain (20 off 11 balls) being their principal run getters. Rafay Safdar (3-26) and Sameer Ahmed (2-35) were the successful bowlers for KG Whites.

Opener Arsalan Malik’s explosive 54 off 23 balls provided KG Whites a strong start to the target of 174 but they lost wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for 150 in 17.1 overs despite punishing knocks from Bilal Munir (36 off 21 balls) and Shaz Shajani (26 off 22 balls). The innings was wrecked by Umair Ahmed (4-24) and Shahnawaz (2-25).