RAWALPINDI, Jan 15: Sialkot Stallions secured a nail-biting victory over Rawalpindi Rams in the National One-day Cup, beating the home team by only one run at the Rawalpindi Stadium.
Needing 10 runs off the last over, the Rams could manage only eight finishing on 229 for seven chasing 231 runs for victory with Usman Saeed (44) and Yasir Arafat (3) remaining not out.
The Stallions who were asked to bat first, rode on the good work of Sarfraz Ahmed who scored an unbeaten 39, to post a decent 230 for eight. The batsman smashed four sixes, three to Babar Naeem in the 44th over that yielded 22 runs and also treated Yasir Arafat with one big hit in the following over.
Sarfraz who later picked up two wickets, was declared Man-of-the- Match. Sialkot were also helped by some useful contributions from Bilal Hussain (38), Shahid Yousuf (36) and Mansoor Amjad who got 32 runs.
Alamgir Khan and Babar took two wickets each. For Rams, Naved Qureshi top-scored with a fine 79 in an 88-ball innings in which he struck 10 fours.
SCOREBOARD
SIALKOT STALLIONS
Imran Nazir b Najaf 5
Faisal Naveed b Yasir 0
Bilal Hussain lbw b Jawad Hameed 38
Mansoor Amjad c Yasir b Alamgir 32
Shahid Yousaf c Bilal b Babar 36
Qaiser Abbas c Ashar Zaidi b Almagir 12
Shahzad Malik c Ashar b Babar 26
Hafiz Khalid st Bilal b Ashar 3
Sarfraz Ahmed not out 39
M. Asif not out 6
Extras (LB-10, W-14, NB-9) 33
Total (for eight wkts, 45) 230
Fall OF WKTS: 1-9, 2-13, 3-98, 4-98, 5-134, 6-168, 7-180, 8-186
BOWLING: Yasir Arafat 7-0-50-1, Najaf Shah 7-0-22-1, Rizwan Akbar 3-0-31-0, Alamgir Khan 9-0-35-2, Jawad Hameed 9-1-35-1, Babar Naeem 6-0-34-2, Ashar Zaidi 4-0-13-1.
RAWALPINDI RAMS
Babar Naeem c Khalid b Sarfraz Ahmed 2
Afaq Raheem run out 15
Bilal Asad c Qaiser Abbas b Mansoor 25
Ashar Zaidi lbw b Sarfraz 9
Naved Qureshi c Sarfraz b Mansoor 79
Usman Saeed not out 44
Yasir Arafat run out 3
Alamgir Khan lbw b Qaiser 0
Jawad Hameed not out 28
Extras (B-1, LB-5, W-9, NB-9) 24
Total (for seven wkts, 45 overs) 229
Fall OF WKTS: 1-9, 2-29, 3-50, 4-85, 5-162, 6-170, 7-170
BOWLING: Sarfraz Ahmed 9-1-26-2, Ali Imran Pasha 9-0-59-0, M. Asif 9-0-40-0, Mansoor Amjad 9-0-43-2, Faisal Naveed 3-0-29-0, Qaiser Abbas 6-1-26-1.