KARACHI: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will sweating over the next two days in the heat of Faisalabad despite completing a resounding five-wicket defeat of Sindh in the eighth fixture of the Cool & Cool presents Pepsi Pakistan Cup at the Iqbal Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Needing a win by a huge margin in their last league-round match, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa achieved their desired goal when discarded Pakistan all-rounder Hammad Azam deposited Aamir Yamin over the square-leg boundary for his third six to seal the game for his side.

By virtue of winning their second game with as many as 26 overs — or 156 deliveries — to spare after the game was reduced to 49-over per side, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa surged to second place in the five-team standings with four points and a net run-rate of +0.740.

With Sindh now mathematically out of running with this their second successive defeat in three matches, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s aspirations to play the final against Federal Areas on Sunday now would hinge on results of the remaining two preliminary-round games left in the event.

Currently, Balochistan — who take on the unbeaten Federal Areas (three straight victories) on Thursday — are third on the table with a net run-rate of -0.064, which is considerably superior to those of fourth-placed Punjab (-1.387) and Sindh (-2.092). The league phase concludes on Friday when arch-rivals Punjab and Sindh meet each other.

The highlight of Wednesday’s match was the welcome sight of former Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez in action in his familiar role of as an off-spinner, a day after being cleared by the International Cricket Council to resume bowling.

The 37-year-old — a vital cog of the Pakistan one-day side — bowled six overs for 33 runs and took a wicket while sharing the new ball with young paceman Mohammad Irfan Jr. Hafeez cleaned up his Sindh counterpart Umar Amin for eight with the second delivery of his fourth over.

Put into bat, the Sindh batsmen once again badly let themselves down with the bat. Upfront Salman Butt scored 41 (four boundaries) but ate up 63 balls in doing so.

Gauhar Ali, partnering Salman, dominated the opening partnership of 27, hit a 19-ball 23 with four fours.

Sindh’s miserable afternoon was compounded further when Khurram Shehzad was run out for a duck and although Pakistan discard Fawad Alam hung around to make an 80-ball 52 (three fours), the innings was wrapped for only 196 in the 47th over by the left-arm paceman Zia-ul- who ended up taking 4-24 in 9.2 overs.

With Khurram Manzoor taking a well-earned rest after back-t-back centuries in the previous two fixtures, Israrullah utilized the chance to open alongside Shan Masood with a stroke-filled knock of 74. The left-hander’s 61-ball effort included nine fours and three sixes.

Shan started the chase in a blaze of strokes as the Test left-hander slammed six fours in scoring 31 off just 17 balls.

Umar Akmal yet again wasted the chance to spend quality time in the middle when he was stumped for a 14-ball cameo of 27 (three fours and two sixes). But Hammad ensured there was no looking as he unleashed a 13-ball 38 that also included four fours apart from those three sixes.

Zia was deservingly declared man-of-the-match afterwards.

Scoreboard

SINDH:

Salman Butt c Adil b Hammad 41
Gauhar Ali c Saad b Irfan 23
Umar Amin b Hafeez 6
Iftikhar Ahmed c Umar b Zia 8
Fawad Alam c Hafeez b Zia 51
Khurram Shehzad run out 0
Danish Aziz c Hammad b Zia 23
Bilal Asif run out 11
Aamir Yamin b Irfan Jr b Zia 17
Junaid Khan c Hammad b Irfan Jr 1
Mohammad Irfan not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-12) 14

TOTAL (all out, 46.2 overs) 196

FALL OF WKTS: 1-27, 2-43, 3-56, 4-114, 5-114, 6-166, 7-171, 8-191, 9-196.

BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan Jr 9-0-41-2; Mohammad Hafeez 6-0-33-1; Mohammad Irfan Sr 10-0-30-0 (2w); Zia-ul-Haq 9.2-0-24-4 (2w); Adil Amin 3-0-19-0; Hassaan Khan 6-1-36-0 (3w); Hammad Azam 3-1-11-1.

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA:

Shan Masood c Junaid b Irfan 31
Israrullah c Khurram b Aamir 74
Mohammad Hafeez c Khurram b Aamir 4
Mohammad Saad c Iftikhar b Bilal 18
Umar Akmal st Gauhar b Fawad 27
Hammad Azam not out 38
Adil Amin not out 4

EXTRAS (W-6) 6

TOTAL (for five wkts, 23 overs) 202

FALL OF WKTS: 1-38, 2-51, 3-109, 4-151, 5-186.

DID NOT BAT: Hassaan Khan, Mohammad Irfan Jr, Mohammad Irfan Sr, Zia-ul-Haq.

BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan 5-0-42-1 (2w); Iftikhar Ahmed 2-0-18-0; Aamir Yamin 5-0-52-2; Junaid Khan 6-0-46-0 (4w); Bilal Asif 4-0-34-1; Fawad Alam 1-0-10-1.

RESULT: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa won by five wickets.

UMPIRES: Shozab Raza and Asif Yaqoob.

TV UMPIRE: Khalid Mahmood.

MATCH REFEREE: Iftikhar Ahmed.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Zia-ul-Haq.

THURSDAY’S FIXTURE: Balochistan vs Federal Areas (2:30pm PST).

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2018