KARACHI: Khurram Manzoor struck purple patch with a counterattacking century to help Karachi Zebras upstaged Multan Tigers by 14 runs in a well-contested Group ‘B’ game of the alBaraka presents Haier T20 Cup late on Wednesday night.

The 28-year-old Test opener spanked a career-best 109 to inspire his side to post 170-4 after Khalid Latif had beaten Tigers skipper Zulfiqar Babar on the spin of the coin. Taking advantage of a pitch – which despite being used for the fourth successive match – still behaved as well as ever it had throughout the first day of the competition, Khurram was on song from ball one with excellent stroke-making all-round the wicket. His 73-ball innings, containing 12 fours and four sixes, against a bowling line-up that also featured Mohammad Irfan, Rahat Ali and Zulfiqar himself, was praiseworthy.

Khurram had not reached a T20 ton since making an even 100, against Hyderabad Hawks, at the UBL Sports Complex in 2006. But this one was definitely a better one considering the strength of the Tigers’ bowling.

Khurram easily outscored Rameez Aziz (20 off 18) during their third-wicket partnership of 76 in just 38 deliveries that rocked the Zebras from 61-2 in the 11th over to 137-3 in the 17th. Khalid took made an invaluable contribution of 22(15 balls, three balls and one six).

While Irfan and Rahat took a wicket but Zulfiqar was denied one as his four overs went for 37.

The Tigers lost an early wicket but a 70-run stand between Zain Abbas (45 off 37 balls, three fours and two sixes and Pakistan batsman Sohaib Maqsood (27 off 25, two fours and one six) lifted them before Shahzaib Ahmed Khan struck four times with his leg-spin to restrict them to 156-7.

Khurram was named man-of-the-match.

Scoreboard

KARACHI ZEBRAS:

Khurram Manzoor run out 109 Khalid Latif run out 22 Mirza Adnan Baig run out 3 Rameez Aziz lbw b Irfan 20 Shaharyar Ghani not out 11 Tariq Haroon c Rizwan b Rahat 0 Faraz Ali Khan not out 1 EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1, NB-2) 4

TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs) 170

FALL OF WKTS: 1-41, 2-61, 3-137, 4-160, 5-160.

DID NOT BAT: Sohail Khan, Shahzaib Ahmed Khan, Rumman Raees Khan.

BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan 4-0-31-1 (1nb, 1w); Aamir Yamin 4-0-25-0; Rahat Ali 4-0-32-1; Zulfiqar Babar 4-0-37-0; Hasnain Bukhari 3-0-18-0; Zain Abbas 1-0-11-0; Rizwan Haider 1-0-15-0.

MULTAN TIGERS:

Zain Abbas b Tariq 45 Zeeshan Ashraf b Rumman 1 Sohaib Maqsood c Shaharyar b Shahzaib 27 Naved Yasin c Rumman b Shahzaib 13 Gulraiz Sadaf c Rumman b Shahzaib 28 Aamir Yamin b Sohail 13 Rizwan Haider not out 10 Hasnain Bukhari b Shahzaib 0 Zulfiqar Babar not out 11 EXTRAS (LB-2, W-6) 8

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs) 156

FALL OF WKTS: 1-10, 2-80, 3-82, 4-101, 5-129, 6-135, 7-136.

DID NOT BAT: Rahat Ali, Mohammad Irfan.

BOWLING: Sohail Khan 4-0-25-1; Rumman Raees Khan 4-0-29-1; Tariq Haroon 4-0-29-1 (1w); Azam Hussain 4-0-39-0; Shahzaib Ahmed Khan 4-0-32-4 (1w).

RESULT: Karachi Zebras won by 14 runs.

UMPIRES: Qaiser Waheed and Nasar Khan.

TV UMPIRE: Tahir Hussain.

MATCH REFEREE: Nadeem Arshad.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Khurram Manzoor.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2014