Hawks qualify for playoffs as Stallions suffer second loss in two days
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KARACHI: Rawalkot Hawks were guaranteed a playoff berth in the Kashmir Premier League as they maintained their unbeaten run on Wednesday after defeating Bagh Stallions by five wickets in Muzaffarabad.
The Shahid Afridi-led side chalked up their third win in fourth matches — the other being a washed out against Kotli Lions last Sunday — at the Muzaffarabad Cricket Stadium after they overhauled the Stallions’ total of 156-9 with 10 deliveries to spare.
Kashif Ali led the chase by striking 54 from 40 balls with the aid of five boundaries and a six after Ahmed Shehzad (27 off 18) and Bismillah (33 off 19) added 56 in 32 balls for the opening stand.
Earlier, the Stallions lost half their side for 58 runs after 11 overs. But all-rounder Aamir Yamin came to their rescue with a robust 34-ball knock of 69 that featured 10 fours and three sixes.
Upcoming seamer Zaman Khan, born in Mirpur, was again on target with three wickets for 18 runs — an excellent performance which was enough to fetch the 19-year-old the player-of-the-match award.
At the time of filing this report the bottom-placed Kotli Lions were playing Mirpur Royals.
Late on Tuesday night, the Stallions — who are third in the standings three points behind the leaders, who have seven — were stunned by a similar margin as Overseas Warriors celebrated their first success in the competition.
Skipper Shan Masood stood out for the Stallions with another sparkling display as the left-handed Pakistan discard struck 73 with his 45-ball effort including 11 fours and one six. Iftikhar Ahmed contributed a blistering 28-ball 54 (four sixes and four fours) to push his side to 186-7.
However, the Warriors found their own hero in Haider Ali in the chase. The youngster bludgeoned seven fours and six sixes in making 91 off 57 balls before he was tragically run out.
Kamran Ghulam eventually guided the Warriors home by contributing an unbeaten 41 (17 balls, four fours and one six).
Meanwhile, the organisers have tweaked the starting times of double-headers on Thursday and Friday as well as remaining games between Aug 14 and Aug 17 in view of the first Test between West Indies and Pakistan — starting in Kingston from Thursday and being televised on PTV Sports — with the cut time of KPL’s live action mutually decided agreed in consultation with event’s broadcasters and production teams and the technical committee.
The first match on Thursday will now start at 10:30am and other at 3:30pm.
Scores in brief:
Played on Wednesday:
Rawalkot Hawks beat Bagh Stallions by five wickets.
BAGH STALLIONS 156-9 in 20 overs (Aamir Yamin 69, Shan Masood 20; Zaman Khan 3-18, Asif Afridi 2-21); RAWALKOT HAWKS 157-5 in 18.2 overs (Kashif Ali 54, Bismillah Khan 33, Sahibzada Farhan 28, Ahmed Shehzad 27; Umaid Asif 2-27, Mohammad Ilyas 2-37).
Played on Tuesday night:
Overseas Warriors beat Bagh Stallions by five wickets.
BAGH STALLIONS 186-7 in 20 overs (Shan Masood 73, Iftikhar Ahmed 54, Rohail Nazir 20; Sohail Khan 2-34, Mohammad Abbas Afridi 2-44); OVERSEAS WARRIORS 190-5 in 19.2 overs (Haider 91, Kamran Ghulam 41 not out, Nasir Nawaz 31; Aamir Yamin 2-31).
Thursday’s fixtures: Muzaffarabad Tigers vs Bagh Stallions (10:30am PST); Rawalkot Hawks vs Overseas Warriors (3:30pm PST).
Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2021
