MULTAN: A hat-trick with the ball and a lower order cameo with the bat by Asif Mehmood saw Sindh overcome defending champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by three-wickets in the National T20 Cup here at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Tuesday night.

The win, fifth in Sindh’s nine outings at the Cup, took them to the second place in the Cup’s points table with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa occupying the top spot.

Asif claimed three victims in a row in the final over of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa innings after the latter were put in to bat by Sindh skipper Saud Shakeel.

The pacer dismissed Niaz Khan, Mohammad Sarwar Afridi and Mohammad Imran to register his and the tournament’s first hat-trick.

Earlier, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s opening batter Sahibzada Farhan top-scored with a 36-ball 44, studded with six fours and one six to help his side post 147 for nine. Sindh’s Zahid Mehmood and Sohail Khan bagged two wickets piece.

While chasing, Sindh lost half of their side in the 14th over with 97 runs on the board and were 106 for seven at the end of the 15th over.

That Sindh were able to achieve the target with two balls to spare was due to an unbroken 42-run partnership for the eighth wicket between Asif and Mir Hamza.

Asif struck two fours and as many sixes of his 17-ball 28 at the staggering strike rate of 164.71. Mir scored 19 off 15 balls, which included one four and one six.

Sindh’s Saad Khan coming to bat at number four top-scored with a 28-ball 31, smashing two boundaries.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Ihsanullah and Sarwar grabbed two wickets each.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the winners of the last two editions, are at the top of the points table with 10 points from eight matches. Sindh, who have played one more match then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are locked on points with the defending champions and now occupy the second spot.

Northern and Balochistan occupy third and fourth position with eight points each, while Southern Punjab and Central Punjab are at the fifth and sixth position, respectively.

Brief scores:

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 147-9 in 20 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 44; Asif Mehmood 3-28, Sohail Khan 2-22); SINDH 148-7 in 19.4 overs (Saad Khan 31, Asif Mehmood 28 not out, Mir Hamza 19 not out; Ihsanullah 2-16).

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2022