KARACHI: A 19-ball cameo from Ali Khan spared blushes for six-time winners Sialkot Stallions who stuttered to a nerve-tingling win against minnows Larkana Bulls in Friday’s opening fixture of the alBaraka Bank presents Haier T20 Cup here at the National Stadium.

Confronted with a relatively achievable chase of 150, the Stallions dramatically lost their way against a superb spell of spin bowling by Zahid Mahmood. The Bulls skipper returned career-best analysis of five for 16 in four overs to rattle a fancied batting line-up.

In 19 deliveries Zahid turned the Group ‘A’ game on its head by dismissing Mansoor Amjad, Shahid Yousuf, Adeel Malik, Abdur Rehman and Bilawal Bhatti. In between the Stallions lost the vital scalp of Haris Sohail to stumble from 50-1 in the seventh over to 110-7 in 17th.

However Ali, renowned as a T20 specialist, came to the rescue with a series of bludgeoning strokes, including two consecutive sixes off Mohammad Urs in the penultimate over of the match. Altogether the 25-year-old right-hander struck five boundaries and three sixes during his 48 that earned him the man-of-the-match award.

Mansoor (37 off 34 balls, four fours) played second fiddle to Mukhtar Ahmed (30 off 19, two sixes and one six) in their opening partnership of 50 in 40 balls.

Earlier after being sent in the Bulls recovered from 30-4 to get a respectable total thanked to the efforts of wicket-keeper Zafar Ali Katpar (59 off 44, six fours and two sixes) and Ghulam Yasin (39 not out off 34, five boundaries) who added 67 in 54 balls; Slow left-armer Nayyar Abbas and Pakistan pace-bowling all-rounder Bilawal Bhatti took five of the wickets but Test spinner Abdur Rehman, leading the Stallions in the forced absence of Shoaib Malik, didn’t any while going for 33 runs.

Scoreboard

LARKANA BULLS:

Ahsan Ali lbw b Nayyar 18 Asif Babar c Shahid b Nayyar 4 Nooruddin c Haris b Nayyar 0 Bilal Irshad c Shakeel b Bilawal 0 Ayaz Jamali b Mansoor 16 Zafar Ali Katpar c Rehman b Bilawal 59 Ghulam Yasin not out 39 Mohammad Urs not out 5 EXTRAS (LB-4, W-4) 8

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs) 149

FALL OF WKTS: 1-22, 2-22, 3-24, 4-30, 5-60, 6-127.

DID NOT BAT: Zahid Mahmood, Mohammad Siddique, Imran Chandio.

BOWLING: Bilawal Bhatti 4-0-37-2 (1w); Hasan Ali 4-0-24-0 (1w); Nayyar Abbas 4-0-25-3 (1w); Mansoor Amjad 4-0-26-1 (1w); Abdur Rehman 4-0-33-0.

SIALKOT STALLIONS:

Mukhtar Ahmed c Nooruddin b Siddique 30 Mansoor Amjad c sub b Zahid 37 Haris Sohail c Siddique b Yasin 20 Shahid Yousuf lbw b Zahid 4 Adeel Malik st Zafar b Zahid 3 Ali Khan not out 48 Abdur Rehman st Zafar b Zahid 1 Bilawal Bhatti c Siddique b Zahid 4 Shakeel Ansar not out 3 EXTRAS (W-3) 3

TOTAL (for seven wkts, 19.1 overs) 153

FALL OF WKTS: 1-50, 2-78, 3-90, 4-96, 5-98, 6-106, 7-110.

DID NOT BAT: Nayyar Abbas, Hasan Ali.

BOWLING: Mohammad Urs 4-0-43-0 (2w); Mohammad Siddique 4-0-22-1; Ghulam Yasin 3-0-43-1; Imran Chandio 4-0-24- 0; Zahid Mahmood 4-0-16-5; Bilal Irshad 0.1-0-2-0 (1w)

RESULT: Sialkot Stallions won by three wickets.

UMPIRES: Irfan Dilshad and Zameer Haider.

TV UMPIRE: Mohammad Asif.

MATCH REFEREE: Ishtiaq Ahmed.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Ali Khan.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2014