LAHORE: The Blues teams of Northern, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Southern Punjab won their respective matches in the National Under-16 Cricket Championship at different venues in Multan on Tuesday.
An unbeaten knock of 82 by Sameer Ahmed and devastating bowling by Salman Ahmad (5-31) helped Southern Punjab earn a close two-wicket win against Sindh Blues at Zawari Cricket Academy ground.
Half-centuries from Shahzaib Khan and Usman Khan guided Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to a 41-run win over Central Punjab at the Divisional Sports Ground.
At the Multan Cricket Stadium, Northern Blues beat Balochistan Blues by 74 runs.
Summarised scores:
Northern U-16 Blues bt Balochistan U-16 Blues by 74 runs.
NORTHERN U-16 BLUES 183 in 43.2 overs (Syed Ali Mehdi 35; Mohammad Adil 3-22, Mohammad Asfand 3-56); BALOCHISTAN U-16 BLUES 109 in 36.2 overs (Sumair Ahmed 21; Mohammad Nabeel 3-16, Mohammad Hassan Khan 3-17, Syed Ali Mehdi 2-13)
Southern Punjab U-16 Blues bt Sindh U-16 Blues by two wickets.
SINDH U-16 BLUES 132 in 44.2 overs (Yahya Shah 46; Salman Ahmed 5-31); SOUTHERN PUNJAB U-16 BLUES 135-8 in 37.3 overs (Sameer Ahmed 82 not out; Noor Habib 4-32, Maaz Zahid 2-26, Abdul Moiz 2-30) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U-16 Blues bt Central Punjab U-16 Blues by 41 runs.
KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 215-7 in 45 overs (Shahzaib Khan 58, Usman Khan 53; Ali Hamza 3-42, Ali Raza 2-52); CENTRAL PUNJAB U-16 BLUES 174 in 41.5 overs (Subhan Saeed 45; Usman Khan 3-37, Ahmed Hussain 2-30, Luqman Khan 2-35).
Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2022