KARACHI: Finally, after 11 days of competition in the ongoing Brighto Paints presents Cool & Cool National T20 Cup saw not one but three individual centuries struck in the two fixtures at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi on Wednesday.
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), who were almost out of contention before Wednesday’s clash against Karachi Whites, sealed a vital 19-run victory over Sarfraz Ahmed’s men in the first game highlighted by centuries from Mukhtar Ahmed and Khurram Manzoor for their respective teams.
Taking cue from Mukhtar and Khurram, Islamabad’s stand-in skipper Shan Masood hit his maiden T20 ton, which was not enough to prevent Lahore Blues from joining Lahore Whites in the semi-finals with a comfortable five-wicket victory later in the evening.
Upfront Sarfraz’s overreliance on ‘batting-second’ whenever the Pakistan captain wins the toss in T20s was blatantly exposed in the most brutal manner by Mukhtar’s tremendous exhibition of clean striking as the 24-year-old Pakistan discard thrashed 117 to propel Fata to 219-5.
Faced with a mounting asking rate of 11 an over from the start of the chase, Karachi Whites could only lay the blame upon themselves after failing to build partnerships from the word go. At midway stage of the innings, they were down in the more at 91-3.
And despite Khurram crossing three figures while forging a fourth-wicket stand of 98 in 55 deliveries with Haris Sohail (50 off 23 balls, four fours and three sixes), Fata were in control before clinching a result which keeps alive in the tournament.
If Karachi Whites — who are currently fourth in the standings with a net run-rate of -0.332 — do make it to the last-four round they would definitely owe a huge debt to both Lahore teams. While the Blues have already done a big favour, Karachi Whites will be firmly rooting for a Lahore Whites win first up on Friday when Islamabad face the league leaders in the morning fixture.
That game won’t be the only worry on the minds of both Sarfraz and head coach Saleem Jaffer since Fata still have another chance to make it the semi-finals if they succeed in defeating the currently third-placed Faisalabad in the last league-round match on Friday evening.
Mukhtar was the real difference in Wednesday’s first game as the explosive right-handed opener had been responsible for scoring an astounding 75 per cent of the first 156 runs when he was fifth out, edging an out-of-sorts Anwar Ali to Sarfraz after blasting 15 fours and six sixes during his 58-ball knock.
Fata skipper Hammad Azam was one of the mid-innings casualties, falling to open his account for the second successive game before Mukhtar was out. But Sohail Akhtar, who hoisted five sixes in a sensational 14-ball cameo of 39, and Asif Afridi (19 off 10 balls, two sixes) carried Fata past the 200-mark by putting on 63 from the last 22 balls.
Khurram, who adorned his 61-ball effort with 14 boundaries and two sixes, joined Mukhtar in emulating Ahmed Shehzad being the only the Pakistanis now to have scored three hundreds in the shortest form of cricket.
Shan, meanwhile, bettered his previous best score of 83 — the left-hander made against Rawalpindi in the ongoing event on Nov 12 — as he slammed an undefeated 103 from 68 balls with the help of 12 fours and two sixes as Islamabad reached 174-3 after Mohammad Hafeez asked them to bat.
Shehzad then led Lahore Blues’ chase with a robust 79 off 47 balls as the Pakistan right-hander bludgeoned eight fours and three sixes, while Hussain Talat was needlessly run out after scoring a 35-ball 41.
Shehzad was also carelessly in throwing away his wicket when he lifted spinner Arsal Shaikh straight down Saad Ali’s lap on the midwicket boundary. Arsal, son of Shakil Shaikh who is now advisor on domestic cricket to PCB chairman, was hit for 23 runs — including three sixes — in the 16th over of the chase before Agha Salman ended the match in 18.4 overs by lifting Shehzad Azam Rana for a six.
Wednesday’s results:
Lahore Blues beat Islamabad by five wickets.
ISLAMABAD 174-3 in 20 overs (Shan Masood 103 not out, Rohail Nazir 33; Khalid Usman 2-32); LAHORE BLUES 177-5 in 18.4 overs (Ahmed Shehzad 79, Hussain Talat 41).
Fata beat Karachi Whites by 19 runs.
FATA 219-6 in 20 overs (Mukhtar Ahmed 117, Sohail Akhtar 39 not out, Nabi Gul 22; Anwar Ali 2-51, Tabish Khan 2-62); KARACHI WHITES 200-5 in 20 overs (Khurram Manzoor 104, Haris Sohail 50, Akbar-ur-Rehman 20; Sameen Gul 2-26, Hammad Azam 2-30).
Thursday’s fixtures: Rawalpindi vs Lahore Blues (12:00noon); Peshawar vs Faisalabad (4:00pm).
Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2017