KARACHI: YJ XI sealed their place in the final of the third Vital Five Ramazan Festival T20 cricket tournament when they upstaged hosts Vital Five CC by 18runs at the Vital Five Ground here on Thursday.

Batting first after skipper Wajid Ali had won the toss in the first semi-final, YJ XI reached an impressive 155-7. Ashraf Ali scored a 32-ball 38 (four boundaries and one six), Wajid 32 off 24 balls (four fours), Gohar Ali 25 off 18 (two fours and one six) and Mohammad Irfan an unbeaten 20 off 15 (two fours and one six).

Slow left-armer Mustafa Iqbal and medium-pacer Waqar Anwar took two wickets each.

Vital Five CC, in reply, were restricted to 137-9 despite a breezy contribution of 48 (off 41 balls, three fours and two sixes) from Faisal Mubashir.

The five-man YJ XI bowling attack remarkably contained five slow left-armers. Of them Yaqzan Rajput emerged as the most successful with figures of three for 36, while Osama Basharat took two for 19 but the man-of-the award went to Fahim Ahmed for his spell of 1-19 that followed a seven-ball cameo of 15 with the bat.

On Friday, the last of the quarter-final will be played between Soni Associates and Tapal CC.

Summarised scores:

YJ XI 155-7 in 20 overs (Ashraf Ali 38, Wajid Ali 32, Gohar Ali 25, Mohammad Irfan 20 not out; Mustafa Iqbal 2-33, Waqar Anwar 2-37); VITAL FIVE CC 137-9 in 20 overs (Faisal Mubashir 48; Yaqzan Rajput 3-36, Osama Basharat 2-19).

Friday’s fixture: Tapal CC vs Soni Associates (fourth quarter-final).

Published in Dawn, July 25th , 2014