KARACHI, Oct 6: A breezy half-century by Nadeem Shaikh inspired A.O.CC to a narrow three-wicket victory over Delhi City Gymkhana in the opening match of the 20th Karachi Gymkhana Ramazan Festival cricket tournament on Thursday.

Nadeem, the Man-of-the-Match, bludgeoned four fours and three sixes in scoring 52 off 30 deliveries as A.O.CC reached their target of 159 for the loss of seven wickets with just two balls to spare at Karachi Gymkhana ground.

Medium-pacer Saif Ashraf grabbed three for only nine runs in five overs.

Earlier, Delhi City Gymkhana made 158 in 24.2 overs. Opener Usman Farhat (54 off 44 balls, four fours and three sixes) and Saif Ashraf (42 off 29 balls, five fours) were the main run-getters. Nadeem captured two wickets.

Summarised scores:

DELHI CITY GYMKHANA 158 in 24.2 overs (Usman Farhat 54, Saif Ashraf 42, M.A. Mannan 27; Atif Chaudhry 2-27, S.M.A. Shah 2-34, Nadeem Shaikh 2-38);

A.O.CC 159-7 in 24.4 overs (Nadeem Shaikh 52, Mohammad Anwar 30; Saif Ashraf 3-9, Ghulam Qadir 2-38).

Friday’s fixture: Mohammad Hussain CC v Omar CC.

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