Sindh suffered their first defeat in the National T20 (2021-22) as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded a comfortable six-wicket victory in the 12th match of the tournament played at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi on Thursday night.
Set a 151-run target, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa completed the chase in 17.4 overs with six wickets left. Opener Fakhar Zaman led the charge for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with a typically aggressive 49 off 32 balls (four fours, four sixes). The left-hander hit pacer Mohammad Hasnain for three sixes and a four in the second over the innings as Hasnain conceded 28 runs –most in an over in the tournament so far.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa batters didn’t let the early loss of their prolific captain Mohammad Rizwan affect the chase as Sahibzada Farhan, Adil Amin and Musadiq Ahmed took the side past the target.
Farhan scored 45 off 30 balls with the help of three fours and as many sixes. The right-hander added 58 runs for the third-wicket with Adil who scored 26 off 19 balls (three fours.)
Rumman Raees, Anwar Ali, Danish Aziz and Zahid Mahmood took a wicket each. This was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s third win in four matches, Sindh too have three wins from four games.
Earlier, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa opted to bowl after winning the toss. Sharjeel Khan hit three fours in the opening over of the match bowled by Shaheen Shah Afridi. The left-hander was however pegged back by the bowlers and was eventually dismissed by Arshad Iqbal for 25.
Sindh lost Shan Masood (13) and Sarfaraz Ahmed (0) in one Asif Afridi over to crash to 41 for three (7.3 overs).
Khurram Manzoor and Saud Shakeel did the repair work by adding 56 for the fourth-wicket. The left-handed Saud was dismissed for 32 by Imran Khan Snr who then got rid of Danish Aziz the next ball.
Imran narrowly failed to take a hat-trick as Shaheen spilled a difficult chance in the slips with Anwar Ali the batter.
Anwar hit a last ball six off Muhammad Wasim Jnr as Sindh finished with what looked like an under par score midway. Asif took two wickets for 20 runs while Imran returned figures of 4-0-24-2.
Scores in Brief:
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa beat Sindh by six wickets.
Sindh 150 for 7, 20 overs (Khurram Manzoor 54, Saud Shakeel 32; Asif Afridi 2-20, Imran Khan Snr 2-24)
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 156 for 4, 17.4 overs (Fakhar Zaman 49, Sahibzada Farhan 45; Rumman Raees 1-10, Anwar Ali 1-11)
Player of the match: Fakhar Zaman
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