KARACHI: The day five of the National T20 Cup turned to be a somber occasion even before the first game got underway at the Multan Cricket Stadium after the tragic news came from Lahore that the mother of three cricket-playing Akmal brothers had passed away early on Friday morning.

Kamran Akmal, who is captaining Lahore Whites in the tournament, shortly afterwards left for their hometown along with younger siblings Adnan and Umar — with all three of them having played for Pakistan — to be with their bereaved family members for the last rites of their late mother.

Kamran and his Rawalpindi counterpart Umar Amin, in fact, both were in the middle for the toss, in the first game of the day that was originally scheduled to start early at 9:30am because of Friday prayers, when the news was broken to the ex-Test wicket-keeper after Umar — who was warming up along with other members of the Lahore squad — had been already been informed of the tragedy.

Brothers rush home following mother’s death

The Rawalpindi team members and support staff subsequently went to the Lahore dressing room to offer their condolences to Kamran, Adnan (who was due to represent Lahore Blues in the afternoon match against Islama­bad) and Umar, while arrangements were underway for the brothers to head back to Lahore.

The gloomy situation meant the focus from the two matches was diverted. As a result both Lahore sides suffered defeats on the field play.

Fatheha was offered after the Friday prayers at the venue.

Salman Butt, who took the reins from Kamran, initially wanted the game to be called off but on intervention of match referee Mohammad Aslam and other PCB officials was talked out of it before it was decided to delay the toss for a 10:30 start with the fixture curtailed to a 15-over per side affair.

Rawalpindi sealed a six-wicket win after Lahore Whites had slumped to 105-8 in their 15 overs on the back of an unbroken partnership of 54 between Umar Amin (28 off 26 balls) and all-rounder Hammad Azam, who was the highest scorer of the match with 30.

Imad Wasim later produced a fine all-round performance to inspire Islamabad to their first win after two straight defeats. The Pakistan T20 star justified his move to No.3 with a robust 42-ball innings of 64 (five fours and two sixes) as his team posted a healthy 159-7 after Imad had won the toss.

The left-handed Ali Sarfraz also played a key part with a 36-ball 45 (five fours and one six) as helped his captain put on 49 for the second wicket.

Ex-Pakistan paceman Aizaz Cheema and spinner Qaiser Ashraf grabbed two wickets each.

Lahore Blues, who are the defending champions, were restricted to 135 all out on the penultimate ball of the match as their Islamabad completed a 24-run triumph. The Blues’ total included a swashbuckling 72 from opener Rizwan Hussain who hammered five sixes and four sixes during his 54-ball knock but lack of support from his team-mates cost them dearly.

Imad, who was later declared, man-of-the-match, snared two wickets for 25 runs in his four overs while former Pakistan pacemen Sohail Khan (2-18 in 2.5 overs) and Umar Gul (3-22 in four overs) also derailed Lahore Blues’ hopes with incisive spells.

Friday’s results:

Islamabad beat Lahore Blues by 24 runs.

ISLAMABAD 159-7 in 20 overs (Imad Wasim 64, Ali Sarfraz 45; Aizaz Cheema 2-24, Qaiser Ashraf 2-30); LAHORE BLUES 135 in 19.5 overs (Rizwan Hussain 72; Umar Gul 3-22, Sohail Khan 2-18, Imad Wasim 2-25).

Rawalpindi beat Lahore Whites by six wickets.

LAHORE WHITES 105-8 in 15 overs (Salman Butt 25, Wahab Riaz 23 not out, Ali Khan 20; Khalid Usman 2-13, Zahid Mansoor 2-20); RAWALPINDI 106-4 in 14.4 overs (Hammad Azam 30 not out, Umar Amin 28 not out, Nasir Nawaz 22; Bilal Asif 2-17).

Saturday’s fixtures: Multan vs Fata (11:00am); Karachi Whites vs Peshawar (3:00pm).

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2018