Staff Report
Rawalpindi: Haris Rauf bagged four wickets to guide Northern to beat Southern Punjab (SP) by five runs and book a semi-final berth in National T20 Cup.
Set to chase 146, SP batsmen failed to stay at the crease for long. Aamer Yamin scored the highest 33 runs off 19 balls with the help of three boundaries and two sixes.
The top-order of SP was completely failed to deliver as Shan Masood and Umar Siddique managed to get 4 and naught, respectively. Sohaib Maqsood (19) and Hussain Talat (12) were also failed to lay a longer inning.
Khsudhil Shah contributed 26 runs while Zeeshan Ashraf with the help of three boundaries scored 25.
Apart from Haris, Imad Wasim bagged two wickets while Shadab Khan took one.
Earlier, Mohammad Ilyas and Hussain Talat bagged two wickets each to help SP restrict Northern to 145-7 in 20 overs.
Sent into bat first, Northern lost openers Umar Amin and Zeeshan Malik earlier for just 23 runs. Sohail Akhtar then supported Northern’s inning by scoring 35 runs off 32 balls with the help of five boundaries. But in 11th over Ilyas picked up well-set Akhtar to further reduce Northern to 63-4.
Asif Ali with the help of two sixes and a boundary struck 28 runs off 18 balls while skipper Imad Wasim made 26, laced with three boundaries.
Apart from Ilyas and Talat, Mohammad Abbas, Aamer Yamin, and Dilbar Hussain picked up a wicket each for SP.
Danish Aziz propels Sindh to pull a victory over Central Punjab
Rawalpindi: Danish Aziz (59*) guided Sindh to a three-wickets victory against Central Punjab (CP) in 18th match of the National T20 Cup.
Danish along with Hassan Khan scored 57 runs to help Sindh chase down 171 runs in 19.1 overs. Hassan scored 36 runs off 15 balls with the help of two boundaries and four sixes.
Azam Khan also contributed well in his team’s total as the right-handed batsman smashed 32 runs off 23 balls laced with five boundaries and a six. He partnered with Danish to score 44 runs.
Waqas Maqsood bagged three wickets while Ehsan Adil and Zafar Gohar took two wickets each for CP.
Earlier, skipper Babar Azam scored 86 off 53 balls to help CP post 170-6 in 20 overs. Babar smashed nine boundaries and three sixes. Rizwan Hussain scored 23 runs off 17 balls with the help of a boundary and a six. Sohail Khan bagged three wickets while Husnain and Anwar Ali shared a wicket apiece.
