National T20 Cup | Match 17 | Balochistan [156/4] beat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [154/6] by 6 wickets

[MenInG]

Squads:

Balochistan - Haris Sohail (captain), Bismillah Khan (vice-captain, wicketkeeper), Abdul Wahid Bangalzai Akbar-ur-Rehman, Akif Javed, Ammad Butt, Awais Zia, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Butt, Kashif Bhatti, Khurram Shahzad, Taimur Khan, Umaid Asif, Umar Gul, Usama Mir and Yasir Shah


Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Mohammad Rizwan (captain, wicketkeeper), Junaid Khan (vice-captain), Arshad Iqbal, Asif Afridi, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imran Khan Snr, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Mohsin, Sahibzada Farhan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Usman Khan Shinwari, Wahab Riaz and Zohaib Khan.

 

[Ryw]

Kpk are favourites on paper but i want Balochistan to put a fight atleast against them. Balochistan is missing express bowler who can bowl fast on will.

 

[MenInG]

Balochistan won the toss and elected to field first

 

[shah_1]

This joker Hafeez talks about giving youngsters a chance yet he doesn't want to sit out. His spot is pretty much guaranteed after England series

 

[Amirforpresident]

Did anyone else notice that Khurram Shezad bowls a lot like Dale Steyn?

 

[shah_1]

Did anyone else notice that Khurram Shezad bowls a lot like Dale Steyn?

But 10kph slower

 

[Shafi]

Rizwan is as shrewd as Sarfraz and Kamran Akmal. He is wasting M Haris by not giving him opportunity. PCB shouldn't put 2 wicket keepers in same team.

 

[Amirforpresident]

But 10kph slower

True, but he seems to be pretty decent from what I’ve seen of him.

 

[Shafi]

This joker Hafeez talks about giving youngsters a chance yet he doesn't want to sit out. His spot is pretty much guaranteed after England series

I don't think he intend to retire even after 2021 T20 World Cup. He will play another 5 years for sure.

 

[shah_1]

Rizwan is as shrewd as Sarfraz and Kamran Akmal. He is wasting M Haris by not giving him opportunity. PCB shouldn't put 2 wicket keepers in same team.

Razzaq is another clown

 

[Kaddy]

At least give one chance to Haris

 

[Shafi]

Razzaq is another clown

Don't forget Basit Ali. The guy is a big hypocrite just like Latif.

 

[Shafi]

At least give one chance to Haris

Not this season for sure. Haris should move out to other team if he wants to go further.

 

[shamaan]

At least give one chance to Haris

They should be asked in the presentation why he hasnt been given a chance

 

[shah_1]

Not this season for sure. Haris should move out to other team if he wants to go further.

Rizwan, and Ifthikhar will busy during first class season. Malik and Hafeez don’t play first class.

I think he will get his chance

 

[hashimafzal]

Watching for the first time. My god the coverage is awful. The way the camera panned you'd have thought Hafeez hit a massive six, only for the ball to be caught at third man.

 

[hashimafzal]

Nice to hear the comms talk about mental health.

 

[Saj]

Malik run a ball for most of this tournament......creating pressure on the guys he is batting with.

 

[Kaddy]

The rule of giving the youngsters a chance at the top order applies only on Babar Azam #professorforareason

 

[shah_1]

Never been impressed with Shabzada Farhan, club level batsman.

 

[Saj]

It seems that Khushdil Shah's innings yesterday has sprung Shoaib Malik into action today.

 

[ElRaja]

2 hours to bowl 20 overs, lol, absolute joke.

 

[Angrez Pakistani]

They should ban the captain for at least one game for this slow over rate.

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

Watching for the first time. My god the coverage is awful. The way the camera panned you'd have thought Hafeez hit a massive six, only for the ball to be caught at third man.

Apart from a few mistakes here and there, the coverage has gotten much better over time. They have gone from being absolutely unwatchable, to pretty decent and if you are watching on Youtube like I am, it's actually good even on a bigger screen.

As long as they continue to progress, it is good.

2 hours to bowl 20 overs, lol, absolute joke.

Wasim laying into the slower overrate and lack of urgency by the players. He's also part of the cricket committee and must use his influence to change certain things. That said, I'd say 100 to 105 minutes should be the time to complete the innings now because there are no people at the boundary returning the ball.

 

[shamaan]

2 hours to bowl 20 overs, lol, absolute joke.

Fines should be imposed otherwise things wont change

 

[shamaan]

They should ban the captain for at least one game for this slow over rate.

First fine then ban

 

[Omer2002]

What a beauty to dismiss the youngster

 

[shamaan]

Abdul gone to a beauty

 

[Shams123]

Abdul was very unlucky there. Would have gotten most people out.

 

[shamaan]

Never been impressed with Shabzada Farhan, club level batsman.

He needs to bat in oppening hes no use down the order

 

[Titan24]

Abdul Wahid got a jaffa from Shaheen upfront.

 

[shamaan]

What a beauty to dismiss the youngster

Unplayable shaheen is different class in this format

 

[Shams123]

He needs to bat in oppening hes no use down the order

Unfortunately he lacks the talent to play anything over 130k. He doent have enough time to play proper shots. Most of the time he fails to get his hands through the ball and also his head falls down.

 

[Titan24]

Shaheen is fast learning and trying to enter a phase where he has control over what he wants to do at this young age. He is bullying the batsmen around, hopefully can transform that into red ball cricket as well.

 

[Amirforpresident]

Ive never seen Shaheen this pumped up before

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

Shaheen is fast learning and trying to enter a phase where he has control over what he wants to do at this young age. He is bullying the batsmen around, hopefully can transform that into red ball cricket as well.

Haina, that's where the real challenge is. T20 is mostly lottery cricket and he's already pretty good at it. The art is setting batsmen up and making them make mistakes in the longer format.

 

[MMHS]

Is KPK’s attack balanced- three left arm era & a fourth pacers with no regular spinner. JK is question mark selection here as he is genuine no 11 and not a new ball bowler. Should have picked a proper spinner + three pacers. Asif Afridi is probably their specialist spinner?

 

[Titan24]

Haina, that's where the real challenge is. T20 is mostly lottery cricket and he's already pretty good at it. The art is setting batsmen up and making them make mistakes in the longer format.

Absolutely, the art of setting up the batsman is the key and that is whats the difference between a good skillful bowler and a great bowler. In Tests and even in ODIs if a bowler needs to get top players out he will have to set them up more often than not. I think Shaheen has got all the skills, just needs to be better with his plans against individual batsmen and then carrying out them with accuracy. To execute a plan in longer formats requires much more control as you have to ball quite a few stock balls accurately and then execute a potential wicket taking delivery well too.

 

[Markhor]

Good to see you all back folks. Missed the gang here.

Internet's been down for the past 4 days, and ran out of mobile data so I haven't seen any of the Rawalpindi leg of the cup. I was going crazy watching god-awful daytime TV.

Really happy to see Akif take a couple. Hopefully Balochistan can get over the line. I'm disappointed in KPK's batting lineup, Mohammad Haris still on the bench I see.

 

[Markhor]

Back in Rawalpindi, and again we see those ugly concrete steps.

With crowds being barred, surely now is the ideal time to start fitting in seats before the return of spectators ?

 

[Shafi]

Both KPK and Sindh deserve to 5-6 in the table.

 

[Shafi]

Good to see you all back folks. Missed the gang here.

Internet's been down for the past 4 days, and ran out of mobile data so I haven't seen any of the Rawalpindi leg of the cup. I was going crazy watching god-awful daytime TV.

Really happy to see Akif take a couple. Hopefully Balochistan can get over the line. I'm disappointed in KPK's batting lineup, Mohammad Haris still on the bench I see.

Rizwan doesn't want any competition. He did same thing with Rohail Nazir in emerging tournament.

 

[MenInG]

 

[Shafi]

2 loud mouth Razzaq and Basit need to be humiliated so they will not bash any professional international coach.

 

[naseem]

Pata nahi aaj dil khush hai.....kal Khushdil tha....aaj Dil khush hai...
Khelo khelo.....Hafeez Mamu .......Malik Chachu ko khelao......

 

[Ryw]

Lol kpk smashed by Awais Zia, they got the main wickets early but could not stop the lefty

 

[naseem]

Impressed by Akif Javed and Arshad Iqbal.....that was an unplayable bouncer to get Butt

 

[Xoib]

Good to se arshad iqbal back on the radar for a while it seemed he would be lost to the system. Him and Akif along with Shaheen and Naseem should be our 4 main pacers over the next 10-12 years

 

[MenInG]

Rawalpindi, 10 October 2020: Balochistan registered their fourth win in six games to move a step closer to securing a semi-final berth in the 17th match of the National T20 Cup for First XI teams at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Saturday. Opener Awais Zia scored an unbeaten 92 to ensure his team easily surpass the 155-run chase against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Balochistan are now at the second spot in the six-team table with eight points from six matches behind Northern who have 10 points from six matches.

Awais faced a mere 49 balls (10 fours, four sixes) in his brilliant effort that ensured Balochistan’s six wicket victory with 20 balls to spare. Balochistan lost two early wickets as Shaheen Shah Afridi continued his stunning bowling form by dismissing newcomer Abdul Wahid Bangalzai for a duck and Bismillah Khan for 18 in a pacy opening spell.

Imran Butt fell for nine while Balochistan lost their captain Haris Sohail for one run before Awais was joined by Akbar-ur-Rehman in what turned out to be a match winning unbroken partnership of 88 runs for the fifth wicket. Akbar scored 24 off 22 balls, he hit three fours.

Shaheen took two wickets for 38 runs in his four over spell but found little support at the other end as Balochistan batsmen especially Awais dominated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attack with sustained stroke play.

Reflecting on his performance, man-of-the-match Awais Zia said: “My start wasn’t bad in Multan but I was struggling a bit to convert my starts, I was a bit unlucky. Today the responsibility was on me with Imam’s absence as my opening partner and I am happy that I made it count. My management and captain Haris Sohail were supporting me throughout and kept sending me messages that I needed to stay at the wicket since I can score quick runs whenever the opportunity comes.”

Earlier, Balochistan opted to bowl first after winning the toss. Their bowlers produced a commendable job to restrict the powerful Khyber Pakhtunkhwa batting line-up to 154 for six in 20 overs.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lost captain Mohammad Rizwan (5) and Mohammad Hafeez (4) cheaply. Fakhar Zaman (33 off 34 balls, two fours, three sixes) added 38 runs for the third wicket with Shoaib Malik.

Malik then added 69 runs for the fourth wicket with Sahibzada Farhan who contributed 12 runs to the partnership.

The seasoned Malik became the first Pakistan batsman (third overall) to reach the milestone of 10,000 runs in T20 cricket. Malik appeared in his 395th T20 match today, he joined the 10,000-run club mark when he reached 47.

Malik held the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa innings together before falling to Umar Gul for 74. His innings included eight fours and two sixes and came off 44 balls.

Left-armer Akif Javed with two wickets for 20 runs was the most successful Balochistan bowler.

Scores in brief

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 154-6, 20 overs (Shoaib Malik 74, Fakhar Zaman 33; Akif Javed 2-20)

Balochistan 156-4, 16.4 overs (Awais Zia 92 not out, Akbar-ur-Rehman 24 not out; Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-38)

Result – Balochistan won by six wickets

Man-of-the-match – Awais Zia (Balochistan)

Sunday’s fixtures:

1500 PST - Northern v Southern Punjab. Shozab Raza and Imran Jawed (on-field umpires), Imtiaz Iqbal (third umpire), Asif Yaqoob (fourth umpire); Mohammad Anees (match referee).

1930 PST – Balochistan v Sindh. Ahsan Raza and Saqib Khan (on-field umpires), Ghaffar Kazmi (third umpire), Rashid Riaz (fourth umpire); Nadeem Arshad (match referee)