KARACHI: Saleem Mughal and Noor-ul-Amin produced excellent performances to help YJ XI reach the semi-finals of the third Vital Five Ramazan Festival T20 cricket tournament with an exciting five-run defeat of Friends CC here on Monday.

Saleem, a veteran right-hander, smashed a glorious 84 to rescue YJ XI from 3-9 to 176-7 after electing to bat first in the first quarter-final at the Vital Five Ground. His 50-ball knock included five sixes and four fours. Also making invaluable contributions were Gohar Ali (42 off 28 balls, six fours and one six) and Mansoor Amjad (37 off 26, five boundaries).

Medium-pacer Umar Gulzar captured four wickets for 16 runs in three overs.

Friends CC, in reply, reached 171-7 despite a first-wicket partnership of 83 between Faizan Riaz (46 off 32 balls, four fours and three sixes) and Qazi Mujahid (34 off 27, three sixes and one four).

Haider Rizvi (25 off 16 balls, three fours and one six) and Zain Anwar (24 not out off seven, three sixes and one four) also batted well but they were unable to score freely against slow left-armer Noor-ul-Amin who finished with astounding analysis of four for seven in four overs.

Saleem was adjudged man-of-the-match.

Summarised scores:

YJ XI 176-7 in 20 overs (Saleem Mughal 84, Gohar Ali 42, Mansoor Amjad 37; Umar Gulzar 4-16, Faizan Riaz 2-23); FRIENDS CC 171-7 in 20 overs (Faizan Riaz 46, Qazi Mujahid 34, Haider Rizvi 25, Zain Anwar 24 not out; Noor-ul-Amin 4-7, Mohammad Waqas 2-19).

Tuesday’s fixture: Touchme XI vs Omar CC (second quarter-final).

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2014