KARACHI: A blazing maiden century from Awais Zia enabled Rawalpindi Rams to canter to an effortless eight-wicket victory over Fata Cheetahs in their opening Group ‘B’ fixture of the Haier T20 Cup at the National Stadium on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old left-hander from Chakwal, who played three T20 Internationals against England in early February 2012 with modest success, was in punishing mood to smash exactly 100 out of 144-2 that the Rams made to triumph with 28 deliveries to spare.

Against the same opponents in the last edition of the tournament in Rawalpindi last February Awais was dismissed for a second-ball duck. But here he was simply in his pomp bludgeoning 13 boundaries and four sixes during his 55-ball knock that made him an easy choice as the man-of-the-match.

None of the bowlers employed by Cheetahs young skipper Usman Khan Shinwari could make any impression on Awais who comfortably outscored Zahid Mansoor (23 off 22) in their second-wicker stand worth 98 runs in 62 balls after Naved Malik had fallen leg-before-wicket to Irfanullah without scoring.

Even Umar Amin had time to play a brace of exquisite strokes when the job was completed.

Earlier, Rehan Afridi (43 off 38 balls, three fours and two sixes) and Mohammad Naeem (32 off 25, four boundaries) were chiefly responsible for the Cheetahs reaching 141-6 after Shinwari elected to bat. The pair put on 60 off 50 balls after their team had lost two wickets for 37 runs.

Scoreboard

FATA CHEETAHS:

Saeed Khan c Samiullah b Nasir 4

Majid Khan c Umar b Samiullah 26

Rehan Afridi c Nasir b Samiullah4 3

Mohammad Naeem c Zahid b Yasim 32

Khushdil Shah c Awais b Sohail1 2

Asif Afridi c Umar b Nasir 0

Asif Ali not out 14

Almar Afridi not out 3

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-2, NB-2) 7

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs) 141

FALL OF WKTS: 1-20, 2-37, 3-97, 4-110, 5-113, 6-123.

DID NOT BAT: Irfanullah, Mohammad Zeeshan, Usman Khan Shinwari.

BOWLING: Sohail Tanvir 4-0-34-1 (1nb, 2w); Nasir Malik 4-0-25-2; Samiullah 4-0-16-2; Akhtar Ayub 2-0-12-0; Yasim Murtaza 4-0-34-1; Hammad Azam 2-0-17-0.

RAWALPINDI RAMS:

Awais Zia not out 100

Naved Malik lbw b Irfanullah 0

Zahid Mansoor c Rehan b Usman 23

Umar Amin not out 17

EXTRAS (W-4) 4

TOTAL (for two wkts, 15.2 overs) 144

FALL OF WKTS: 1-7, 2-105.

DID NOT BAT: Jamal Anwar, Hammad Azam, Sohail Tanvir, Yasim Murtaza, Samiullah, Nasir Malik, Akhtar Ayub.

BOWLING: Usman Khan Shinwari 3-0-21-1 (1w); Irfanullah 3-0-28-1 (1w); Asif Ali 3-0-27-0 (1w); Asif Afridi 3.1-0-31-0; Mohammad Zeeshan 2-0-23-0 (1w); Saeed Khan 1-0-14-0.

RESULT: Rawalpindi Rams won by eight wickets.

UMPIRES: Nadeem Iqbal and Tahir Rasheed.

TV UMPIRE: Kamal Merchant.

MATCH REFEREE: Jamshed Hussain.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Awais Zia.

Published in Dawn, September 18th , 2014