KARACHI: A Pakistan record partnership between Yasir Hameed and skipper Younis Khan propelled Abbottabad Falcons to a resounding win over Bahawalpur Stags and kept alive their Faysal Bank T20 Cup quarter-finals’ hopes in Islamabad on Monday.

Yasir, who famously scored century in each of his debut Test against Bangladesh at Karachi more than 10 years ago but log discarded, and Pakistan stalwart Younis shared an unbroken second-wicket stand of 169 as the Falcons piled up a massive 200-1 after the Stags chose to bowl first in the Group ‘D’ clash at the National Cricket Ground.

The Yasir-Younis partnership eclipsed the previous best T20 record of 168 between Imran Farhat and Taufiq Umar who opened the Lahore Eagles’ innings against Hyderabad Hawks in the last edition of this event at Lahore in December 2012.

Man-of-the-Match Yasir missed out scoring a maiden T20 ton by three runs but is 97 from 68 balls included 11 fours and one six. Younis was more belligerent as he ended up on 71 in a 47-ball knock that was adorned with six fours and a brace of sixes.The Stags slumped to 123-8 with all-rounder Khalid Usman snaring three wickets with his slow left-armers.—Sports Reporter

Scoreboard

ABBOTTABAD FALCONS: Yasir Hameed not out 97 Hammad Ali c Mir Azam b Rehman 18 Younis Khan not out 71 EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1, NB-12) 14 TOTAL (for one wkt, 20 overs) 200 FALL OF WKT: 1-31. DID NOT BAT: Adnan Raees, Riaz Kail, Shakeel Ahmed, Khalid Usman, Yasir Shah, Fazle Rabbi, Junaid Khan, Ahmed Jamal. BOWLING: Mohammad Mudassar 4-0-40-0 (2nb); Ansar Javed 3-0-30-0; Abdul Rehman 4-0-60-1 (10nb); Jahanzeb Khan 4-0-30-0; Imranullah Aslam 3-0-24-0; Aaqib Javed 2-0-15-0. BAHAWALPUR STAGS: Mir Azam b Ahmed Jamal 7 Hamid Ali c Hammad b Junaid 7 Imranullah Aslam b Khalid 23 Mohammad Yasir b Hammad b Junaid 5 Moinuddin c Shakeel b Khalid 6 Aaqib Javed b Yasir Shah 1 Ansar Javed not out 32 Faisal Mubashir lbw b Fazle 29 Jahanzeb Khan b Khalid 7 Abdul Rehman not out 4 EXTRAS (NB-2) 2 TOTAL (for eight wkts, 20 overs) 123 FALL OF WKTS: 1-10, 2-14, 3-36, 4-48, 5-49, 6-49, 7-103, 8-115. DID NOT BAT: Mohammad Mudassar. BOWLING: Ahmed Jamal 3-0-36-1; Junaid Khan 4-0-20-2; Khalid Usman 4-0-17-3; Yasir Shah 4-0-15-1; Shakeel Ahmed 3-0-22-0 (2nb); Fazle Rabbi 2-0-13-1. RESULT: Abbottabad Falcons won by 77 runs. UMPIRES: Mohammad Asif and Tahir Shah. MATCH REFEREE: Ilyas Khan. MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Yasir Hameed.