KARACHI: Defending champions Lahore Blues and their Whites strings both sealed identical victories by nine wickets on Thursday to remain in hunt for the knockout phase of the National T20 Cup in Multan.

The third wins for both teams have now made it an open race for at least three of the last-four places with former champions Karachi Whites the only region to record four victories and almost certain to become the first side to reach the semi-finals on Friday if they defeat the bottom-placed Islamabad in the morning fixture.

First up Lahore Whites brushed aside after Umaid Asif, the 34-year-old seamer from Sialkot, grabbed four wickets for 13 runs in his four overs to restrict Peshawar to the lowest total in the current event.

After being put into bat by Salman Butt, Peshawar plummeted to 22-6 in the seventh over before partially recovering to end up with a dismal 99-8 on the back of a 58-run partnership between Saad Ali and Sajid Khan.

While Sajid remained unbeaten with a career-best 33 (off 40 balls, one four), the left-handed Saad struck three fours and one six in scoring 37 from 31 deliveries as he and Sajid were the only batsmen to enter double figures.

Slow left-armer Zafar Gohar, who shared the new ball with man-of the-match Umaid, picked up three wickets for just 12 runs in four overs.

It was then left to 25-year-old opener Tayyab Tahir to mark his first T20 innings in a national competition with 51 off 41 balls. The right-hander, who didn’t get a chance to bat on his debut in this format against Faisalabad during the 2015 edition held in Rawalpindi, slammed three fours and hoisted a brace of sixes, while sharing an unbroken stand of 77 with Zeeshan Ashraf (39 off 30 balls, three sixes).

Lahore Whites’ stand-in skipper Salman Butt was the solitary casualty of the innings when he was stumped by Salman Afridi off Sajid for a 15-ball six.

Pakistan T20 all-rounder Hussain Talat was the mastermind behind Lahore Blues’ triumph against the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) later in the evening.

Fata, who are also in contention for the semi-finals, managed a competitive 140-9 after Saad Nasim opted to bowl first at the toss. The chief run-getters were opener Sohail Akhtar (39 off 27 balls, three fours and two sixes), Asad Afridi (25 off 16, two sixes and one four) and Samiullah Jr (20 off 25).

Hussain, who bowls brisk medium-pacers, captured three wickets for 22 runs in a four-over spell with lanky paceman Waqas Ahmed claiming 2-27 from his four overs, while slow left-armer Mohammad Irfan kept it extremely tight with 1-16 in four overs.

Lahore Blues didn’t face much alarm in their chase as Nauman Anwar (34 off 27, four fours and two sixes) and the in-form Rizwan Hussain shared an opening stand of 71 inside the first nine overs.

Hussain then joined Rizwan, who contributed a 54-ball 68 with the aid of 10 boundaries, to steer the Blues home at the start of the penultimate over by putting on 70 without being separated.

Hussain, who was later adjudged man-of-the-mach, hit a 29-ball 35 with one six and a four.

Thursday’s results:

Lahore Blues beat Fata by nine wickets.

FATA 140-9 in 20 overs (Sohail Akhtar 39, Asad Afridi 25, Samiullah Jr 20; Hussain Talat 3-22, Waqas Ahmed 2-27); LAHORE BLUES 141-1 in 18.1 overs (Rizwan Hussain 68 not out, Hussain Talat 35 not out, Nauman Anwar 34).

Lahore Whites beat Peshawar by nine wickets.

PESHAWAR 99-8 in 20 overs (Saad Ali 37, Sajid Khan 33 not out; Umaid Asif 4-13, Zafar Gohar 3-12); LAHORE WHITES 100-1 in 14.2 overs (Tayyab Tahir 51 not out, Zeeshan Ashraf 39 not out).

Friday’s fixtures: Karachi Whites vs Islamabad (9:30am); Multan vs Rawalpindi (3:00pm).

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2018