KARACHI: Opener Farrukh Shehzad bludgeoned an unbeaten 72 to help Faisalabad Wolves outclass Azad Jammu Kashmir Jaguars in their AlBaraka Bank presents Haier T20 Cup fixture at the National Stadium here on Tuesday.

The Wolves opened their Group ‘C’ account with an eight-wicket stroll with full five openers to spare as they chased down a total of 136 that was hardly adequate enough to test them.

Man-of-the-match Farrukh, the 29-year-old right-hander from Sargodha, punched his way to nine boundaries and two sixes during his 38-ball innings while sharing opening partnership of 102 in just under 12 overs (71 deliveries) with Ali Waqas.

The left-handed Ali scored an enterprising 43 that contained five fours and one six and negotiated 40 balls. Wolves skipper Misbah-ul-Haq didn’t even need to come out after y Ali was caught off Irfan Talib.

Irfan, the slow-left-armer, also took the other wicket to come Jaguars’ way when Asif Ali was held by Ghulam Murtaza after lifting two sixes in his brief knock of 18.

Earlier, the Jaguars fluffed a golden chance of posting a decent score after openers Raheel Majeed and Adil Gulbahar had been involved in a stand 90 in the opening 14 overs. Raheel played a captain’s hand of 60 (49 balls, eight fours and one six) while Adil supported him with a 37-ball 28.

But once they went, the scoring slowed down with the final six overs yielding 45 runs.

Scoreboard

AZAD JAMMU KASHMIR JAGUARS:

Raheel Majeed c Jahandad b Khurram 60 Adil Gulbahar b Imran 28 Hasan Raza Jr c Talha b Jahandad 3 Iqbal Akram c Jahandad b Asad 11 Ghulam Murtaza not out 24 Imran Arif not out 1 EXTRAS (B-1, LB-3, W-2, NB-2) 8

TOTAL (for four wkts, 20 overs) 135

FALL OF WKTS: 1-90, 2-92, 3-95, 4-120.

DID NOT BAT: Abdul Shakoor, Irfan Talib, Arsalan Arif, Naqqash Basharat, Saad Altaf.

BOWLING: Khurram Shehzad 4-0-21-1; Mohammad Talha 4-0-27-0 (1w); Asad Ali 4-0-23-1 (1w); Imran Khalid 4-0-23-1; Ehsan Adil 3-0-33-0 (1nb); Jahandad Khan 1-0-4-1.

FAISALABAD WOLVES:

Farrukh Shehzad not out 72 Ali Waqas c Adil b Irfan 43 Asif Ali c Murtaza b Irfan 18 Ali Shan not out 5

EXTRAS 0

TOTAL (for two wkts, 15 overs) 138

FALL OF WKTS: 1-102, 2-124.

DID NOT BAT: Misbah-ul-Haq, Jahandad Khan, Khurram Shehzad, Ehsan Adil, Imran Khalid, Mohammad Talha, Asad Ali.

BOWLING: Saad Altaf 2-0-8-0; Imran Arif

2-0-12-0; Arsalan Arif 3-0-48-0; Naqqash Basharat 2-0-24-0; Abdul Shakoor 3-0-25-0; Irfan Talib 3-0-21-2.

RESULT: Faisalabad Wolves won by eight wickets.

UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza and Sajid Afridi.

TV UMPIRE: Aftab Gillani.

MATCH REFEREE: Iqbal Sheikh.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Farrukh Shehzad.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2014