KARACHI: Inspired by a brilliant spell of spin bowling from Wasim Ali, Qasim Gymkhana continued their dream run in the 33rd Karachi Gymkhana Ramazan Cricket Festival for the Omar Associates Trophy by reaching the semi-finals here on Friday.

Pitted against Sindh Police in the second quarter-final Qasmi Gymkhana booked their spot with a deserved 28-run victory after dismissing the policemen for 148 in 19 overs. The architect of their great success was slow left-armer Wasim who grabbed five wickets for 26 runs in four overs.

Barring Shah­aryar Ghani, Sindh Police batsmen generally struggled against a predominantly spin attack employed by skipper Abid Qasmi. The left-handed Shaha­ryar was easily the most prominent run-getter with a resourceful innings of 61 with his 38-ball effort featuring six sixes and one four.

Noman Khan scored 29 off 22 deliveries with the aid of four boundaries while putting on 43 for the fourth wicket with Shaharyar. Opener Hamza Khan hit three fours and one six in making a 16-ball 23.

Earlier Qasmi Gymkhana posted 176-8 with Bilal Irshad (36 off 25 balls, two sixes and two fours) engaged in a second-wicket partnership of 48 with opener Riaz Mirani (31 off 27, two sixes ad one four).

Kamran Hussain later blasted 30 off 15 balls with a brace of sixes and as many fours, while Mohammad Faizan struck three fours and two sixes in making 33 from 24 balls.

Wasim was later declared man-of-the-match and collected his prize from former Karachi Gymkhana president Fawad Saleem Malik.

Summarised scores:

QASMI GYMKHANA 176-8 in 20 overs (Bilal Irshad 36, Mohammad Faizan 33, Riaz Mirani 31, Kamran Hussain 30; Ali Asghar 2-19); SINDH POLICE 148 in 19 overs (Shaharyar Ghani 61, Noman Khan 29, Hamza Khan 23; Wasim Ali 5-26).

Saturday’s fixture: Third quarter-final — Omar Cc vs New Al-Habib CC (2:30pm PST).

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2018