Peshawar Panthers won their third game in a row, swatting aside AJK Jaguars by nine wickets in Karachi. It was Jaguars’ third defeat in three matches.
Things began well for Jaguars, as their openers Raheel Majeed and Imran Arif put on a brisk 51 for the first wicket. Things then went alarming downhill as they lost all ten wickets for 30 runs, left-arm spinner Zohaib Khan causing much of the mayhem with a triple-wicket over that carved up Jaguars’ middle order. Barring the openers, only one batsman, No. 9 Iqbal Akram, made it past 5, and even he didn’t reach double figures, ending on 8*.
Panthers had little trouble during the chase, with their openers Rafatullah Mohmand and Israrullah clobbering 77 in seven overs. Mohmand was caught and bowled for 46, with victory only five runs away, before the win was wrapped up in the ninth over, giving Panthers’ net run-rate a big boost.
Group D
In another low-scoring game in Karachi, four-fors from Abbottabad Falcons fast bowler Fazl-e-Rabbi and left-arm spinner Kamran Ghulam routed Dera Murad Jamali Ibexes for 83 runs. The Falcons then chased down the target in the 13th over with eight wickets to spare.
With four strikes at the start, Fazl-e-Rabbi decimated the Ibexes’ top order and, along with Ahmed Jamal, reduced the side to 36 for 6 in the sixth over. A 41-run seventh-wicket stand between Asif Ali and Imran Khan Rind provided the only resistance before Ghulam skittled the rest of the line-up, taking three wickets of his four wickets in the 15th over to bundle the side out. Fazl-e-Rabbi took 4 for 27, while Ghulam, who was awarded the Player-of-the-Match had returns of 4 for 11. Fakhar Zaman’s 34-ball 44 anchored the Falcons’ chase as they took a two-point lead at the top of the Group D table.
Comments are closed.