RAWALPINDI: Discarded Pakistan opener Ahmed Shehzad again underlined his immense potential with an undefeated half-century which propelled Lahore Lions to a convincing six-wicket win against Karachi Zebras in the Faysal Bank Super Eight T20 Group ‘A’ fixture at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium here on Sunday night.
Ahmed, the man-of-the-match, anchored the 136-run chase after the Lions lost the in-form Pakistan opener Nasir Jamshed and their experienced captain Kamran Akmal with only 15 runs on the board.
Nasir was caught behind off Anwar Ali’s third delivery, while Kamran (6) lofted spinner Azam Hussain straight down to Akbar-ur-Rehman at midwicket.
It was then left to Ahmed and Umar Akmal to take the game away from the Zebras in a 59-ball partnership of 83. The Lions won with 13 deliveries to spare.
Umar and Ahmed upped the scoring rate, while averting the threat of Danish Kaneria.
Although Kaneria managed to dupe Umar into playing down the wrong line of a leg-break, the Lions were on course.
Abdul Razzaq put on 35 with Ahmed but was twice left off in the same over in which he was dismissed for a scratchy 12.
Earlier, the Zebras frittered away a sound start provided by opener Khurram Manzoor and Rameez Aziz, who put 61 in 49 balls.
ScoreboardKARACHI ZEBRAS:Khurram Manzoor run out 31Rameez Aziz run out 37Adnan Baig st Kamran b Sohail 7Hasan Raza not out 33Faisal Iqbal b Imran 10Anwar Ali b Razzaq 2Akbar-ur-Rehman not out 2EXTRAS (LB-7, W-2, NB-4) 13TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs) 135FALL OF WKTS: 1-61, 2-79, 3-93, 4-114, 5-122.DID NOT BAT: Danish Kaneria, Atif Maqbool, Uzair-ul-Haq, Azam Hussain.BOWLING: Abdul Razzaq 4-0-25-1 (1w); Wahab Riaz 4-0-27-0 (1nb); Raza Ali Dar 1-0-8-0; Adnan Rasool 4-0-24-0; Imran Ali 4-0-27-1; Sohail Ahmed 3-0-17-1 (1nb, 1w).LAHORE LIONS:Nasir Jamshed c Adnan b Anwar 4Ahmed Shehzad not out 60Kamran Akmal c Akbar b Azam 6Umar Akmal b Kaneria 43Abdul Razzaq c Adnan b Uzair 12Kashif Siddique not out 1EXTRAS (B-2, LB-2, W-4, NB-2) 10TOTAL (for four wkts, 17.5 overs) 136FALL OF WKTS: 1-4, 2-15, 3-98, 4-132.DID NOT BAT: Raza Ali Dar, Sohail Ahmed, Adnan Rasool, Wahab Riaz, Imran Ali.BOWLING: Anwar Ali 4-0-24-1 (1w); Azam Hussain 4-0-30-1 (1w); Uzair-ul-Haq 3.5-0-35-1 (1w); Danish Kaneria 4-0-27-1 (1w); Atif Maqbool 2-0-16-0.RESULT: Lahore Lions won by six wickets.UMPIRES: Jamil Kamran and Nadeem Iqbal.TV UMPIRE: Masood Khan.MATCH REFEREE: Khalid Niazi.MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Ahmed Shehzad.