KARACHI: Hyderabad pulled off a shock three-wicket victory to stop Karachi from reaching the final of the T20 cricket event of the 17th Sindh Games at the TMC Ground here on Saturday.

Hyderabad, who qualified for the knockout stage as the runners-up in Group ‘B’, were scheduled to take on Larkana in the gold medal match under lights at the same venue on Saturday.

Larkana, meanwhile, booked their spot with a comfortable 57-run defeat of Shaheed Benazirabad in the second semi-final, also staged at the TMC Ground on the penultimate day of the four-day provincial games.

On Sunday, Karachi and Shaheed Benazirabad will play the bronze medal fixture at the TMC Ground, starting at 9:00am.

After being put into bat, Karachi were restricted to 152-8 in their stipulated 20 overs with young left-handed all-rounder Danish Aziz scoring 46 with the help of four boundaries and one six.

Hyderabad sealed victory with three balls to spare with solid contributions from Uzair Jafri (44 with fours and one six) and all-rounder Nihal Ali (31, four fours and one six).

Abdul Wajid bagged three wickets for 30 runs.

Larkana made good use of batting first by posting 173-8 against Shaheed Benazirabad, largely due to half-centuries from Habibullah and Riaz Ahmed. Habibullah hammered a scintillating 73 that included 11 boundaries, while Riaz scored a quickfire 53 with five fours and three sixes.

Shaheed Benazirabad’s chase saw them being dismissed for 116 in 18.2 overs with Mohammad Shahbaz scoring 35 (four fours).

Slow left-armer Faraz Aziz was Larkana’s bowling star with figures of 4-23.

Saturday’s results:

Semi-finals:

At TMC Ground: Hyderabad beat Karachi by three wickets.

KARACHI 152-8 in 20 overs (Danish Aziz 46, Zakir Malik 23, Junaid Naeem 22; Rehmatullah 2-23, Abdul Samad 2-41, Nihal Ali 2-46); HYDERABAD 156-7 in 19.3 overs (Uzair Jafri 44, Nihal Ali 31,Rehmatullah 22; Abdul Wajid 3-30, Nadir Shah 2-25).

At TMC Ground: Larkana beat Shaheed Benazirabad by 57runs.

LARKANA 173-8 in 20 overs (Habibullah 73, Riaz Ahmed 53;.Kashif Bhatti 2-32, Sohbat Khan 2-40); SHAHEED BENAZIRABAD 116 in 18.2 overs (Mohammad Shahbaz 35, Mohammad Usman 18, Jawwad Bhatti 16; Faraz Aziz 4-23, Abdul Sattar 2-26, Shah Nawaz 2-29).

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018