KARACHI, March 3: Sialkot Stallions kept their status as favourites intact when they eased past Karachi Dolphins to reach the final of the Twenty20 Cup cricket championship at the National Stadium on Friday.

The Stallions ran out easy winners by 29 runs after the Dolphins were restricted to 169 for seven.

The Dolphins could blame no one but themselves for letting down a vociferous crowd of around 15,000.

No less than eight catches were put down by the Dolphins with Nauman Alvi the main offender.

The main beneficiary from these lapses was Stallions’ opener Tahir Mughal, who was given four ‘lives’.

Even though the Dolphins underperformed in the field, Irfanuddin lived up to his promise as a talented upcoming off-spinner with a tournament record match haul of six for 25 while the rest suffered, including Test speedster Mohammad Sami.

Tahir fully capitalized on the opportunities given to him by helping himself to 94 off 55 deliveries that was chiefly responsible of lifting the Stallions to 198 for eight.

Striking the ball with tremendous power, Tahir bludgeoned nine fours and six sixes while dominating the third-wicket partnership of 98 with Shoaib Malik (33 off 24 balls, two sixes and one four).

Rana Navedul Hasan took over once Tahir and Shoaib fell in the same over to Khalid Latif’s occasional medium-pacers.

He smashed an 18-ball 36 which was laced with two huge sixes and a solitary four.

The Stallions always had the game under control even when Agha Sabir and Khalid Latif laid a solid platform for a late charge from the Dolphins.

The pair added 67 before Khalid (24 off 22 balls, three fours) pulled the ungainly looking left-arm seamer Sarfraz Ahmed straight to mid-wicket.

The left-handed Sabir looked in great touch on his way to 40 off 33 balls until he was run out as he took a chance on Tahir’s smart pick-up and throw from the deep.

Afsar Nawaz (38 off 25 balls, five fours and one six) and skipper Faisal Iqbal (25 off 20 ball, one four and one six) kept alive Dolphins’ fading hopes as they added 65 for the third wicket but once Qaiser Abbas’s removed them the game lost excitement once the result became obvious.

The Stallions will take on either current champions Faisalabad Wolves or Lahore Lions in Saturday’s final.

The Wolves and Lions were engaged in the other semifinal at the time of filing this report.

Scoreboard

SIALKOT STALLIONS:

Imran Nazir c Agha Sabir b Irfan 17

Tahir Mughal b Khalid 94

Shahid Yousuf st Afsar b Irfan 0

Shoaib Malik c Afsar b Khalid 33

Rana Navedul Hasan not out 36

Qaiser Abbas c Agha Sabir b Irfan 2

Shahzad Malik lbw b Irfan 4

Hafiz Khalid c sub b Irfan 0

Mansoor Amjad c Sami b Irfan 0

Sarfraz Ahmed not out 0

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-2, W-4, NB-4) 12

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 20 overs) 198

FALL OF WKTS: 1-57, 2-58, 3-154, 4-156, 5-174, 6-181, 7-195, 8-195

DID NOT BAT: Mohammad Asif.

BOWLING: Mohammad Sami 4-0-46-0 (1nb); Malik Aftab 4-0-35-0; Nauman Alvi 4-0-45-0 (2w); Irfanuddin 4-0-25-6 (1w); Saad Wasim 1-0-14-0; Afsar Nawaz 1-0-18-0; Khalid Latif 2-0-11-2 (1nb, 1w).

KARACHI DOLPHINS:

Agha Sabir run out 40

Khalid Latif c Shoaib b Sarfraz 24

Afsar Nawaz st Hafiz Khalid b Qaiser 38

Faisal Iqbal c Shoaib b Qaiser 25

Fawad Alam run out 3

Saad Wasim c Sarfraz b Qaiser 4

Mohammad Sami c Hafiz Khalid b Asif 6

Asim Kamal not out 5

Malik Aftab not out 8

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-6, W-7, NB-2) 16

TOTAL (for seven wkts, 20 overs) 169

FALL OF WKTS: 1-67, 2-74, 3-139, 4-139, 5-143, 6-149, 7-185.

DID NOT BAT: Irfanuddin, Nauman Alvi.

BOWLING: Rana Navedul Hasan 4-0-34-0 (1nb); Sarfraz Ahmed 4-0-30-1; Mohammad Asif 4-0-25-1; Tahir Mughal 4-0-32-0; Shoaib Malik 2-0-24-0 (2w); Qaiser Abbas 2-0-17-3 (1w).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Tahir Mughal.

Earlier on Thursday night, Rizwan Saeed made vital contributions with bat and ball as Karachi Zebras won the final match of the preliminary round phase.

Rizwan struck 32 off 21 balls in the unbroken partnership of 53 with Ashraf Ali (52) as the Zebras defeated Lahore Lions by three wickets with eight deliveries to spare.

Batting first, the Eagles were bowled out for 150 in 19.5 overs.

The Zebras made a stuttering start but recovered to achieve the target in 18.4 overs.

Summarised scores:

Karachi Zebras beat Lahore Eagles by three wickets.

LAHORE EAGLES 150 in 17.5 overs (Kamran Sajid 40, Imran Farhat 35, Arsalan Mir 21, Sohail Ahmed 16; Rizwan Saeed 3-18, Tanvir Ahmed 2-50);

KARACHI ZEBRAS 151-7 in 18.4 overs (Ashraf Ali 52 not out, Rizwan Saeed 32 not out, Naumanullah 18; Junaid Zia 3-34).

Final standings

Final standings (Tabulated under played, won, lost, points, net run-rate):  

Pool ‘A’

Sialkot Stallions 6 6 0 12 +2.099

Faisalabad Wolves 6 4 2 8 +2.686

Lahore Eagles 6 3 3 6 +0.077

Peshawar Panthers 6 3 3 6 +0.003

Karachi Zebras 6 3 3 6 -1.431

Rawalpindi Rams 6 1 5 2 -1.438

Multan Tigers 6 1 5 2 -2.268  

Pool ‘B’

Lahore Lions 5 5 0 10 +1.719

Karachi Dolphins 5 4 1 8 +0.871

Abbottabad Rhinos 5 2 3 4 +0.130

Hyderabad Hawks 5 2 3 4 -.250

Islamabad Leopards 5 2 3 4 -0.492

Quetta Bears 5 0 5 0 -1.779