KARACHI: Shahnawaz Dahani reminded the national selectors in resounding fashion on Wednesday that he deserves to be in the 15-man Pakistan squad — rather than being a travelling reserve — for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup.

The fast bowler spearheaded Sindh’s swift demolition act of Balochistan with a rich bag of four wickets as the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led team opened a two-point gap at the of leaderboard by cantering to a ruthless 77-run victory, their third on the trot, after the tournament resumed at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi following a two-day break.

Balochistan had hoped to be as much competitive as possible after being they bolstered by inclusion of batters Abdullah Shafiq and Sohail Akhtar — the duo released on loan by Central Punjab and Northern respectively — but they suffered a spectacular collapse after reaching 59-1 before folding up meekly for just 98 in 16.4 overs.

Losing five wickets for the addition of mere 17 runs hit Balochistan quite hard as leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood, later declared player-of-the-match, grabbed three — including Abdullah for eight — and Danish Aziz proving the perfect foil as his slow left-armers sent back the out-of-favour Pakistan left-hander Haris Sohail (9) and Sohail Akhtar (8).

The Larkana-born Dahani then returned after a wicketless first over — the last of Powerplay — to clean up the rest in a seven-ball spell which fetched him those four wickets for one run with his victims being Kashif Bhatti (5), Bismillah Khan (12), Umaid Asif 4) and Akif Javed (0) in that order to take his haul to eight — same as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shaheen Shah Afridi — wickets.

The 23-year-old’s average of 9.37, economy of 7.03 and strike-rate of eight balls per wicket are marginally superior to the Pakistan spearhead’s figures of 12.25, 8.16 and 9 with both having played three matches each so far.

Apart from Bismillah, just captain Imam-ul-Haq (19 off 18 balls), and fellow opener Abdul Wahid Bangalzai (29 off 23, five boundaries) were only other Balochistan batters to make double-digit contributions.

Earlier, Sarfaraz led a strong Sindh batting performance with the captain emerging as the top scorer in a team tally of 175-4 after winning the toss. The former Pakistan skipper — who is also tipped in the cricketing circles to make the revised Pakistan squad as the understudy to wicket-keeper/batter Mohammad Rizwan — followed up his unbeaten 42 in the win against Northern on Sunday night by hitting up a 25-ball 41 (three fours and one six) to improve his average in the event to 98 for once out.

Sharjeel Khan set the tone by hoisting three sixes in a 20-ball knock of 34 also featuring a four as he and fellow left-hander Shan Masood (31 off 30, three fours and one six) added 52 in 38 deliveries for the opening wicket.

But the highest partnership of the game when Saud Shakeel (32 off 24, four boundaries) and Sarfaraz put on 55 for the fourth wicket in 36 balls when the left-handed Saud was bowled by Khurram Shehzad in the 17th over.

Anwar Ali provided the final flourish with another quickfire display (22 off 13) in the unbroken stand of 39 in 22 balls.

At the time of filing this report, Northern were in action against Southern Punjab, who have lost all three of their previous fixtures in the competition.

Scoreboard

SINDH:

Shan Masood run out 31

Sharjeel Khan c S. Akhtar b Umaid 34

Khurram Manzoor c Khurram b Kashif 10

Saud Shakeel b Khurram 32

Sarfaraz Ahmed not out 41

Anwar Ali not out 22

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-3) 5

TOTAL (for four wkts, 20 overs) 175

FALL OF WKTS: 1-52, 2-67, 3-81, 4-136.

DID NOT BAT: Danish Aziz, Rumman Raees Khan, Zahid Mahmood, Shahnawaz Dahani, Mohammad Hasnain.

BOWLING: Khurram Shehzad 4-0-25-1 (1w); Akif Javed

4-0-53-0 (2w); Umaid Asif 4-0-32-1; Amad Butt 4-0-32-0; Kashif Bhatti 4-0-31-1.

BALOCHISTAN:

Imam-ul-Haq c Dahani b Rumman 19

Abdul Wahid Bangalzai c Rumman b Zahid 29

Abdullah Shafiq c Danish b Zahid 8

Haris Sohail c and b Danish 9

Sohail Akhtar c Saud b Danish 3

Bismillah Khan c Saud b Dahani 12

Amad Butt c Rumman b Zahid 1

Kashif Bhatti b Dahani 5

Umaid Asif c Shan b Dahani 4

Khurram Shehzad not out 2

Akif Javed c Sarfaraz b Dahani 0

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-3) 6

TOTAL (all out, 16.4 overs) 98

FALL OF WKTS: 1-46, 2-59, 3-62, 5-73, 5-73, 6-76, 7-92, 8-93, 9-98.

BOWLING: Anwar Ali 1-0-9-0; Mohammad Hasnain 2-0-13-0 (1w); Rumman Raees Khan 2-0-15-1 (1w); Shahnawaz Dahani 2.4-0-12-4 (1w); Danish Aziz 4-0-23-2; Zahid Mahmood 4-0-18-3; Saud Shakeel 1-0-5-0.

RESULT: Sindh won by 77 runs.

UMPIRES: Qaiser Waheed and Nasir Hussain.

TV UMPIRE: Imtiaz Iqbal.

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Anees.

PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Zahid Mahmood (Sindh).

THURSDAY’S FIXTURES: Northern vs Central Punjab (3:00pm PST); Sindh vs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (7:30pm PST).

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2021