Naveed Malik hit half century and Jamal Anwar quick fire 16 got six wickets win for Rawalpindi Rams against Faisalabad Wolves while Multan Tigers overpowered Karachi Dolohins by 14 runs in the opening match on day three of the Super Eight T20 Cup at the Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad on Sunday.
Faisalabad Wolves crawled to 140 runs after starting the game on a slower pace. In fact it was Sohail Tanvir who nipped the ball to a tight line to contain the Wolves. Tanvir dented Wolves in the very first over when he took the wicket of Mohammad Hafeez on the very first ball. Misbahul Haq then steadied the innings with his trade-mark style making 36 off 42 balls while little contributions from Khurrum Shahzad, Ali Waqas, Naveed Latif and Hassan Masood got a fighting total to the board.
The late overs blitz by Naveed and Hassan provided the Wolves enough footing to fight for. They hit 24 runs off the last two overs to take the total to 140 runs. Chasing the target of 140 runs set by Wolves, Rams achieved 142 in 17th over losing six wickets. Naveed scored quick 55 runs off 30 balls with the help of six boundaries and three sixes. He got ample support from his opening partner Awais Zia (37) to complete 91 runs for the first wicket. But things slowed down for the Rams with Mohammad Hafeez’s back to back strikes sent jitters in the Rams’ spines. He sent three players packing with his bowling and was instrumental in the run-out of the fourth. But the proceeding that turned into a thriller was made easy by Jamal with his six balls 19 studded with three fours and a six that finished the match in 16.4 overs. Hafeez with three wickets was the pick of the bowlers from the Wolves.
Tanvir took two wickets and so did Raza Hasan while Mohammad Rameez, Hammad Azam and Samiullah shared one wicket each.
Earlier, Zulfiqar Babar and Zain Abbas steered Multan Tigers to a 14 runs win against Karachi Dolphins in the opening match of the day.
Zain hammered 85 runs in Tigers’ 161 for six runs innings and later Zulfiqar trapped four wickets for the Dolphins in four overs giving away just 18 runs to make the win easy for his team.
Batting first, Multan Tigers had a solid start making 45 for the opening wicket and the score was swelled to 93 by the second wicket. Yasir Araqfat, Gilraiz Sadaf and Zeeshan Ashraf made useful contributions with the bat.
Sohail Khan and Haaris Ayaz shared two wickets each for the Dolphins but in reply they fell 14 runs short of the Tigers’ total and made 147 for nine in 20 overs. Khalid Latif and Rameez Raja were the prominent batsmen with 51 and 40 runs respectively while Asad Shafiq and Fawad Alam were the other batsmen to reach the double figures. Their hopes of win were hampered by Zuifiqar Babar who took four wickets.