December 8, 2001	Saturday	Ramazan 22, 1422

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KARACHI, Dec 7: Northern Gymkhana suffered their second defeat in three outings in the Paragon Cup 2001 cricket championship, going down by four runs to CDC on Friday at the UBL A ground.

Put into bat after losing the toss, CDC scored 200 for the loss of eight wickets in their 25 overs, Imran Khan top scoring with 41 runs.

Tariq Ali and Abid Hanif with 29 runs each, coupled with Afsar Nawaz and Rizwan Qureshi 28 runs apiece, also made useful contributions to their team’s total. Right-arm medium fast bowler Shiraz Haider three wickets for 34 and off-spinner Naeem Tayyab two for 42, grabbed the wickets.

Needing 201 runs for victory at the rate of a little over eight runs per over, Northern Gymkhana lost an early wicket. But unruffled with the situation, took up the challenge when M. Masroor (42) and Maisam Hasnain (40), added 56 runs in only 35 deliveries.

With M. Javed (81) taking over the mantle, Northern Gymkhana seemed to be cruising to victory at 147 for three and later at 182 for five, just 19 runs away from victory with five wickets in hand and 18 deliveries to be bowled.

But after Javed fell, smashing six sixes and three flashing boundaries in his 44-ball knock to the bowling of off-spinner Waseem, the rest of the batting line-up buckled with Waseem picking up two more wickets.

Waseem Naeem had figures of three for 25 in his five over spell and Imran Khan chipped in with two for 51.

Mohammad Javed was named the Man of the match.

Saturday’s fixture: Quarterfinal - A.O. CC v Airport Gymkhana