Khurram steers Karachi whites into National ODI cup final

In the first semifinal between Peshawar and Karachi whites played at Rawalpindi cricket stadium, Peshawar won the toss and elected to bat first. Peshawar started things well but Anwar Ali booked Peshawar’s opener Sahibzada Farhan on his individual score of 12 runs but the other opener Israrullah played well for his 47 and missed his half century by 3 runs. As Israr departs, score was 93-3 in 21.3 overs.

Mohammad Rizwan and Adil Amin then started building partnership and moved the score to 174 but Adil fall prey on 33 and Mohammad Asghar broker the partnership of 81 runs. Akbar Badshah also played a cameo of 40 runs in 32 balls while Mohammad Rizwan also played well for his 72 runs. Both the batsmen were run out during taking sharp singles. Zohaib Khan also contributed 31 runs in 20 balls and Karachi whites wrapped Peshawar’s innings on 281 runs in 49.5 overs.

Mohammad Asghar and Anwar Ali picked up 3 wickets each for giving away 43 and 49 runs respectively while Zia ul haq remains expensive as he conceded 66 runs for his 2 wickets in 10 overs.

Karachi whites needed 282 runs with an asking rate of 5.64 runs per over and opener Khurram Manzoor made it so easy for his time after his ton in the all-important innings. He scored 100 runs in 102 balls with 11 boundaries and 1 six followed by Akbar ur Rehman who scored 82 runs and chased down the score in 49.1 overs for the loss of 5 wickets to win the match by 5 wickets. Imran Khan, Tajwali, Zohaib Khan, Shah Faisal and Israrullah picked up 1 wicket apiece from Peshawar.

Second semifinal will be played between the teams of Rawalpindi and Islamabad today. It is pertinent to mention here that in the last league match, Islamabad humbles Peshawar with a huge margin of 233 runs and Rawalpindi downs FATA by 5 wickets.