KARACHI: Holders Multan, hosts Karachi along with Faisalabad and Hyderabad were the first-round winners in the 6th National Disabled T20 Cricket Championship here on Monday.

Multan overpowered Sargodha by eight wickets in the Group ‘B’ fixture at the TMC Ground with left-arm seamer Mohammad Haris adjudged man-of-the-match for his figures of 3-8 from four overs as Sargodha mustered 83 all out.

In the same pool, Hyderabad rode on man-of-the-match Babar’s unbeaten 52 and spinner Abdul Rehman’s analysis of 4-15 to defeat Quetta Bolan by 34 runs at the same venue.

Karachi opened their Group ‘A’ account at the RLCA Gulberg Ground with an easy eight-wicket victory over Bahawalpur with man-of-the-match Danish Ahmed blasting an unbeaten 56 off 30 balls with the aid of four fours and one six.

Faisalabad whipped Quetta by eight wickets at the RLCA Ground. After Saifullah’s 77 off 58 balls (11 boundaries) had guided Quetta to 147-6, Faisalabad reached their 148-run target in 18.3 overs with Adnan Butt (68 off 59 balls, five fours) and Mohammad Saqlain (53 off 38, five fours) remaining undefeated.

Earlier, ex-Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, who is also the president of Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association (PDCA), formally inaugurated the four-day event in a special ceremony held at the RLCA Gulberg Ground.

Also present on the occasion were PDCA patron Saleem Karim, former KCCA president Prof Ejaz Ahmed Faruqi, PDCA honorary secretary Amiruddin Ansari, Fawad Mustafa, Dr Noman Palikar, Zeeshan Altaf Loya, Aslam Bareach, Mohammad Nizam, Asif Ali Khan, Rahat Ali Shah, Javed Ahmed Khan, Jameel Ahmed, Khawar Aziz, Sadiq Khatri, Imran Khan, Javed Amin, Mohammad Javed and Shaukat Rajput, Tahir Mahmood, Mohammad Masroor and Kaleem Alam.

In a brief speech, Rashid thanked the Pakistan Cricket Board for extending full support to the PDCA.

Results on Monday:

First round:

Faisalabad beat Quetta by eight wickets.

QUETTA 147-6 in 20 overs (Saifullah 77, Abdullah Khan 22; Mohammad Waqas 3-28); FAISALABAD 148-2 in 8.3 overs (Adnan Butt 68 not out, Mohammad Saqlain 53 not out).

Hyderabad beat Quetta Bolan by 34 runs.

HYDERABAD 155-5 in 20 overs (Babar 52 not out, Abdul Jabbar 31; Zafeer Ali 2-25, M. Mavia 2-29); QUETTA BOLAN 121 in 19.1 overs (Waheed Khan 39, Zaheer Ahmed 33; Abdul Rehman 4-15, Fahim Ahmed 2-17).

Karachi beat Bahawalpur by eight wickets.

BAHAWALPUR 130-7 in 20 overs (Mohammad Abid 53, Abdul Khaliq 20; Noman Shabbir 3-18, Iqbal Hussain 2-24); KARACHI 131-2 in 17 overs (Danish Ahmed 56 not out, Arif Richard 42).

Multan beat Sargodha by eight wickets.

SARGODHA 83 in 19.4 overs (Saifullah 25 not out; Mohammad Haris 3-8, Umaiz-ur-Rehman 3-14); MULTAN 85-2 in 8.1 overs (Majid Hussain 30, Matloob Qureshi 24).

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018