KARACHI: On a day that saw just one curtailed game taking place in the National T20 Cup in Faisalabad, Northern stormed into the semi-finals with a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Early morning rain and more of the same during the afternoon left the outfield at the Iqbal Stadium inundated, forcing the match officials to abandon the opening fixture of day six and leaving Central and Southern sharing points in the much-awaited battle of the Punjab.

However, when the conditions improved considerably enough, the start of match two was delayed by an hour with play being curtailed to 16-overs-a-side. As the situation demanded, Northern captain Imad Wasim had no hesitation in taking the fielding-first option upon winning the toss.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who are now out of reckoning for the knockout round, suffered a body blow as Fakhar Zaman (three off six balls) literally threw away his wicket as if he was more interested in giving fielding practice to the man standing within the 30-yard circle, rather sent the ball up and over to the fence.

Fakhar’s early demise followed that of his fellow left-handed opening partner Israrullah (1) in that same second over. Adil Amin (3) followed them shortly afterwards to leave Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in tatters at 15-3.

The promising Khushdil Shah looked good in making 22 from 13 balls (three fours and one six) before the left-hander swung wildly against Pakistan leg-spinner Shadab Khan. But the experienced duo of Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed restored parity with a fine partnership of 52. Iftikhar made Sohail Tanvir pay heavily for waywardness with the former Pakistan left-armer conceding several sixes in an eventful over.

Iftikhar was finally dismissed by Sohail for a 20-ball 31 (three sixes and one four), held on the long-on boundary by Ali Imran. Rizwan, the successor to sacked Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed as the wicket-keeper/batsman, continued his excellent form with a second straight post-50 score. This time he slammed seven boundaries in making 52 from 35 balls.

Rising fast bowler Musa Khan — who had wrecked the innings upfront — grabbed four wickets for 38 runs in four overs in his first match of the tournament.

Umar Amin (39 off 28 balls, six boundaries) and Ali Imran (34 off 23, three sixes and one four) then made sure Northern did not lose initiative gained in the field by sharing a brilliant first-wicket partnership of 72 on either side of another stoppage for rain but the result was beyond any doubt.

Both Ali and Umar fell to out-of-favour Pakistan paceman Junaid Khan, who ended up with 2-13 in his two overs.

Appropriately, it was Imad who sealed Northern’s third victory with a pulled six off spinner Mohammad Mohsin after the target was revised to 101 from 12 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis calculations.

The deserving Musa was later declared the man-of-the-match.

The event now takes a two-day break before action resumes from Monday. With Balochistan and Northern already in the semis, the three fixtures are virtual quarter-finals as Sindh, Southern Punjab, Central Punjab still in the running for remaining berths.

Meanwhile in the Second XI competition at the National Stadium in Karachi, Southern Punjab maintained their winning sequence by inflicting a 21-run defeat on Central Punjab to become the first team reaching the last-four phase.

The day’s other game turned out be quite thrilling encounter in which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa edged past Northern by just three runs.

Friday’s results:

First XI — Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad:

Northern beat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by seven wickets (D/L Method).

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 134-8 in 20 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 52, Iftikhar Ahmed 31, Khushdil Shah 22; Musa Khan 4-38); Northern 102-3 in 11.3 overs (Umar Amin 39, Ali Imran 34; Junaid Khan 2-13).

CENTRAL PUNJAB vs SOUTHERN PUNJAB, match abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Second XI — National Stadium Karachi:

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa beat Northern by three runs.

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 172 in 20 overs (Mehran Ibrahim 50, Nabi Gul 45, Kamran Ghulam 44; Usama Mir 2-19, Nauman Ali 2-38); NORTHERN 169-9 in 20 overs (Sarmad Bhatti 51, Faizan Riaz 37; Asad Afridi 4-18, Sameen Gul 2-28, Asif Afridi 2-35)

Southern Punjab beat Central Punjab by 21 runs.

SOUTHERN PUNJAB 179-5 in 20 overs (Mohammad Mohsin 76, Zain Abbas 45; Asad Raza 2-37); CENTRAL PUNJAB 158 in 19.4 overs (Mohammad Saad 46, Ayaz Tasawwar 27, Ehsan Adil 24, Zahid Mansoor 20; Zia-ul-Haq 3-23, Mohammad Imran 3-28, Mohammad Irfan Jr 2-44)

Monday’s fixtures:

First XI: Sindh vs Southern Punjab (1:30pm)

Second XI: Sindh vs Southern Punjab (9:30am)

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2019