Haider and Asif conquered the Northern beginning
Haider and Asif conquered the Northern beginning However, their knock was followed by Asif Ali’s unbeaten 43 off 20 balls, which helped North quickly chase down their own objective of 140 off 18 balls.
Haider Ali thrust himself into the limelight again with a 28-ball half-century to coveted Northern emphatic six-wicket win over Balochistan in the opening game of the National T20 Cup in Rawalpindi.
He hit seven fours and two sixes :-
North was 14-1 when Haider went in, and he hit a four off the first ball before hitting Amad Butt for a continuous six to seal his power. He remained unbeaten till the end, hitting seven fours and two sixes and writing his first half-century since February. Since then, he has only passed 20 three times in 19 innings in international matches for the PSL, Pakistan and CPL.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen led the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to hand Central Punjab an unbeatable victory.
North 140 for 4 (Haider 58, Asif 43) beat Balochistan 139 for 7 (Amad Butt 34, Rauf 2-18, Nawaz 2-31) by six wickets.
Northern needed 51 off 51 balls when Asif Ali arrived and escaped an early opportunity when Kashif Bhatti was dismissed for 3. After that he never looked back, hitting four sixes and three fours to easily see his team home.
The Opted to bat first :-
Balochistan was 70 for 5 before Amad Butt (34 off 24). And Kashif Bhatti (24 off 25) scored 66 to push them into a suitable total. Both A fiery final over by Haris Rauf, who took 2 for 18 at 150 kmph. Mohammad Nawaz also took two wickets.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 187 for 5 (Rizwan 65, Iftikhar 40*, Hasan 3-30) beat Central Punjab 9 for 151 (Akhlaq 62, Shaheen 3-25, Arshad 2-14, Imran 2-37) by 36 runs.
Defending champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa made a strong start to their attack by defeating star-studded Central Punjab by 36 runs. The victory was set up by brilliant innings from Mohammad Rizwan (65 off 40) and Iftikhar Ahmed (40 off 25) who stimulated KP for a total of 187, whose pace pack was faultlessly bowled by the Shaheen Shah Afridi-led pace pack was defended.
Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman laid a solid foundation with an opening partnership of 67 runs in 7.3 overs. Rizwan then added 45 runs with Adil Amin before the two fell quickly and left KP 119 for 3 in 12.4 overs.
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Hasan Ali was the only bowler :-
Iftikhar moved to the point and determined that the innings stayed on track, he hit six fours and a six with Mohammad Wasim, who scored 11 off 7 balls. Hasan was the only bowler who jeopardized KP’s development, taking three wickets including Rizwan and conceding 30 runs in his four overs.
Despite efforts from Babar Azam (29 off 22) and Shehzad (24 off 16), Central Punjab was trailing at 71 for 3 wickets. With almost 12 overs remaining in the last 10 overs, Central Punjab didn’t get the push they needed, no one could give Muhammad Akhlaq the clearance he needed.
He scored 62 runs in 35 balls with the help of six fours and four. For sixes Shaheen’s three wickets were from Muhammad Akhlaq and Faheem Ashraf, while Imran Khan and Arshad Iqbal took two wickets each.