KARACHI: Peshawar Panthers, inspired by excellent seam bowling, played a brilliant game of cricket not only to outshine Faisalabad Wolves but also to reach their maiden national T20 semi-finals after a thrilling encounter at the National Stadium here on Thursday.

The Panthers in the process registered their fourth successive win in Group ‘C’ of the Al-Baraka presents Haier T20 Cup by virtue of an 11-run defeat of Wolves, who were the runners-up in the last tournament held in February in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The Panthers would now take on former six-time champions Sialkot Stallions in Saturday’s first semi-final.

The Wolves, regarded as one of the powerhouses of T20 batting, were unable to get 140 as the Panthers put up a grand exhibition of team spirit. With no star to speak of in their ranks, they did remarkably well to defeat a side having no less than five internationals including Pakistan Test and ODI captain Misbah-ul-Haq.

Using their limited resources tactfully, the Panthers forced Wolves batsmen into elementary committing errors so much so that Misbah was left to do too much when everything seemed lost as the required run-rate continued to climb; the Wolves needed 42 from the last three overs with just three wickets in hand.

The last over began with the Wolves still 19 away from the target. Misbah (36 off 29, three fours and one six) sent the first delivery out of the ground but fell on the very one when he thrashed a high full toss from Mohammad Imran Khan straight down long-on throat.

Misbah, in vain, stood his ground for a while after asking the umpires to check legality of the delivery before trudging off slowly just before the Panthers celebrated as if they had already won the tournament as Asad Ali, Wolves’ last man, walked in.

Mohammad Imran bowling Ehsan Adil (1) sealed the fate of the match with two balls to spare.

Apart from Misbah, only Ali Waqas (28 off 35 balls, four boundaries) and Asif Ali (29 off 19 balls, three fours and one six) somehow managed to score freely against an attack that operated with a lot of conviction.

The right-arm Imran claimed four wickets but the bowler to impress most was his unrelated namesake Imran Khan Junior.

The left-arm seamer is a huge fan of legendary Wasim Akram. Playing only his fourth game at this level, he took two crucial wickets with a subtle change of pace.

The senior Imran was unfortunate to miss out on the man-of-the-match prize which went to Panthers’ opener Riffatullah Mohmand.

Earlier, the Panthers themselves scuppered an electrifying start given to them by the bludgeoning bat of Riffatullah, with the veteran opener plundering seven boundaries and two sixes in making 43 out of the first 50 runs.

That they eventually got to a fighting 139-9 was mainly because of Mohammad Rizwan. The wicket-keeper hit run-a-ball 37 that included a brace of sixes and a boundary.

Their innings contained two no-balls but their batsmen, Riffatullah and Rizwan, didn’t take advantage in as both were bowled on the free-hit deliveries off Talha and Asad, respectively.

Scoreboard

PESHAWAR PANTHERS:

Riffatullah Mohmand c Salman b Talha 43Israrullah c and b Asif 3Iftikhar Ahmed c Misbah b Talha 6Mohammad Fayyaz run out 0Adil Amin c Talha b Jahandad 13Mohammad Rizwan Jamaluddin c Khurram b Imran 4Zohaib Khan b Imran 4Imran Khan Junior c Jahandad b Ehsan 14M. Imran Khan not out 2Taj Wali not out 0

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-3, W-5, NB-4) 13

TOTAL (for nine wkts, 20 overs) 139

FALL OF WKTS: 1-50, 2-58, 3-59, 4-59, 5-80, 6-90, 7-98, 8-118, 9-137.

BOWLING: Ehsan Adil 4-0-36-1 (3w); Asad Ali 4-0-39-1 (1nb); Imran Khalid 4-0-20-2 (1w); Mohammad Talha 3-0-20-2 (1nb, 1w); Jahandad Khan 4-0-16-1; Asif Ali 1-0-4-1.

FAISALABAD WOLVES:

Farrukh Shehzad c Rizwan b M. Imran 0Ali Waqas lbw b Iftikhar 28Khurram Shehzad c Zohaib b M. Imran 5Asif Ali c Imran Jr b Adil 29Misbah-ul-Haq c Riffatullah b M. Imran 36Jahandad Khan c Fayyaz b Zohaib 4Imran Khalid run out 10Mohammad Salman c Fayyaz b Imran Junior 1Mohammad Talha b Imran Junior 8Ehsan Adil b M. Imran 1Asad Ali not out 1

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-2, NB-2) 5

TOTAL (all out, 19.4 overs) 128

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-19, 3-63, 4-69, 5-79, 6-95, 7-97, 8-119, 9-127.

BOWLING: Mohammad Imran Khan 3.4-0-20-4; Taj Wali 3-0-26-0 (1w); Imran Khan Junior 4-0-27-2; Adil Amin 4-0-21-1 (1nb); Zohaib Khan 4-0-30-1 (1w); Iftikhar Ahmed 1-0-3-1.

RESULT: Peshawar Panthers won by 11 runs.

UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza and Ahmed Shahab.

TV UMPIRE: Shozab Raza.

MATCH REFEREE: Khalid Niazi.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Riffatullah Mohmand.

FRIDAY’S FIXTURES: Lahore Lions vs Abbottabad Falcons (9:00am); Lahore Eagles vs Azad Jammu Kashmir Jaguars (2:00pm); Faisalabad Wolves vs Islamabad Leopards (6:00pm).

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2014