LAHORE: A blistering half-century by George Thomas of England helped Mardan Warriors defeat high-flying Bahawalpur Royals by five wickets in the Pakistan Junior League (PJL) here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Monday night.

Chasing 146, Warriors got off to a flying 78-run start through opener Thomas and Shazaib Khan in 9.3 overs and, after overcoming a mini middle-order collapse, finally reached their target with five balls to spare.

Thomas, who is the second highest PJL scorer with 123 runs, hit his second half-century scoring 58 off just 39 balls with six strokes to the fence while Shahzaib struck a sedate 31-ball 32 studded with five fours before he was dismissed by Arham Nawab.

A mini batting collapse reduced the Warriors to 127 for five, which included the prized wicket of Thomas who was dismissed by Mohammad Zeeshan caught by Arham at the total of 118.

However, the unbeaten pair of Abbas Ali (12) and Daud Nazar (9) helped the Warriors cross the line as Royals suffered their first loss of the league in three games.

Earlier, Royals’ opener and PJL’s top-scorer Basit Ali flopped and was sent back for just nine runs. However, Ali Razzaq (44, 43 balls, seven fours), Shawaiz Irfan (26 off 26, two fours, one six) and Farhan Yousuf (24 off 13, three fours, one six) made useful contributions to give some respectability to the total which proved insufficient in the end.

Summarised scores:

BAHAWALPUR ROYALS 145-4 in 20 overs (Ali Razzaq 44, Shawaiz Irfan 26, Farhan Yousuf 24); MARDAN WARRIORS 147-5 in 19.1 overs (George Thomas 58, Shazaib Khan 32; M Zeeshan 2-17, Arham Nawab 2-31).

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2022