Sindh emerged victorious Saturday in the fifth match of the Pakistan Cup series held in Faisalabad’s Iqbal stadium.
Islamabad batsmen were facing an uphill task throughout the match as they pursued the 337-run target set by Sindh and they had to do it with star pacer Mohammad Amir bowling at his extreme best. Amir claimed 4 of the Islamabad wickets.
Sharjeel Khan was first to go. He scored just 5 runs off 5 balls before edging one to Sarfraz Ahmed who made no mistakes behind the wicket. Nasir Jamshed was the next. He was found wondering in front of the wickets as the ball struck his pads. He had scored 14 runs off 21 balls with the help of 2 boundaries before getting out. Iftikhar Ahmed also edged an Amir delivery to the wicket-keeper after scoring 10 runs off 7 balls and Kamran Akmal, the other opener with Sharjeel Khan, also gave in finally after scoring 25 runs off 26 balls. He was also caught behind the wickets by Sindh captain Sarfraz Ahmed. Islamabad s whole team only managed to play 39.5 overs as the whole team was sent back to the pavilion by Sindh s bowling attack at a score of 218 runs.
Earlier, Sindh set a total of 337 runs at the loss of 6 wickets for Islamabad in the 5th match of the Pakistan Cup being played on Saturday.
Sindh won the toss in this fifth match of Pakistan Cup and elected to bat first against Islamabad. The decision by skipper Sarfraz Ahmed was proven right by his opening pair as the duo put up 196 runs together for the opening wicket partnership. Khurram Manzoor struck a blazing century while Sami Aslam also batted brilliantly, scoring 75 runs off 86 balls, whereas Rashid Latif scored 62 runs.
Khurram Manzoor was sent home by star Pakistani fast bowler Mohammad Irfan. He tried to hit a low full toss out of the park and ended up getting caught at short fine leg. However, the spectacular 123 by Khurram Manzoor certainly put Sindh on the track and the team was able to put 336 runs on the board.
Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Abbas and Shadab Khan picked two wickets each for Islamabad.