KARACHI: Holders Multan, Karachi and Faisalabad continued their winning run in the sixth National Disabled T20 Cricket Championship, while a blazing hitting from Ahsan Khalil saw Sargodha tie their second-round fixture with Quetta Bolan here on Tuesday.

Quetta Bolan, put into bat in the Group ‘B’ match at the TMC Ground, collected 140-8, a total which was exactly matched by Sargodha on the final ball of the match chiefly because of singlehanded heroics of Ahsan.

Ahsan bludgeoned an undefeated 91 off 74 balls with the help of 15 boundaries to deservingly claim the man-of-the-match.

Hosts Karachi encounter no real trouble in beating Quetta by 13 runs in their Group ‘A’ game at the RLCA Gulberg Ground.

Rao Javed struck 65 off 51 balls (five fours), Mohammad Zeeshan 34 off 44 (two fours) before a 18-ball gem from man-of-the-match Danish Ahmed, who thrashed 38 with four boundaries, lifted Karachi to 157-5 after Quetta opted to bowl first.

Quetta, in reply, posted 144-9 with Zaheer Ahmed (35 off 34, two fours) and Qasim Khan (30 off 21, four fours) their chief scorers.

Experienced all-rounder Jahanzaib Tiwana inspired Multan to a seven-wicket win against Hyderabad in the Group ‘B’ encounter at the TMC Ground.

Hyderabad, batting first, were dismissed for only 101 in 19.1 overs with Hamza contributing 32 off 28 balls (five fours). Off-spinner Jahanzaib grabbed 2-13, slow left-armer Mohammad Asif 2-13 and leg-spinner Umaiz-ur-Rehman 2-14.

Man-of-the-match Jahanzaib hit a quick 19 off eight balls and along with Matloob Qureshi (37 off 25, five fours) helped the champions over the line in just 9.3 overs.

Faisalabad edged Bahawalpur by 11 runs in the Group ‘A’ match at the RLCA Ground thanks to a good double from man-of-the-match Adnan Butt (53 off 47 balls, three fours and figures of 2-36).

Rehman Ghani Mirza blasted a 38-ball 57 with three fours and one six to enable Faisalabad post 159-6 after winning the toss.

Off-spinner Mohammad Saqlain claimed 3-7 in two overs to restrict Bahawalpur to 148 all out despite Mohammad Shahzad making 57 off 42 balls with six hits to the fence.

Results on Tuesday:

Second round:

Karachi beat Quetta by 13 runs.

KARACHI 157-5 in 20 overs (Rao Javed 65, Danish Ahmed 38, Mohammad Zeeshan 34; Abdullah Khan 2-21); QUETTA 144-9 in 20 overs (Abdul Hameed 34, Saifullah 30; Ameer Ahmed 3-26, Ahmed Raza 2-18).

Sargodha vs Quetta Bolan — match tied.

QUETTA BOLAN 140-8 in 18 overs (Zaheer Ahmed 35, Qasim Khan 30; Qasim Khan 2-6); SARGODHA 140-8 in 18 overs (Ahsan Khalil 91 not out; Asad Ali 3-23, Mohammad Yousuf 2-27).

Faisalabad beat Bahawalpur by 11 runs.

FAISALABAD 159-6 in 20 overs (Rehman Ghani Mirza 57, Adnan Butt 53; Mohammad Shahzad 2-23); BAHAWALPUR 148 in 20 overs (Mohammad Shahzad 57, Mohammad Asif 28, Umair Bin Javed 20; Mohammad Saqlain 3-7, Adnan Butt 2-36).

Multan beat Hyderabad by seven wickets.

HYDERABAD 101 in 19.1 overs (Hamza 32; Mohammad Asif 2-12, Jahanzaib Tiwana 2-13, Umaiz-ur-Rehman 2-14); MULTAN 102-3 in 9.3 overs (Matloob Qureshi 37, Jahanzaib Tiwana 19).

Wednesday’s fixtures: Quetta vs Bahawalpur (RLCA Gulberg Ground, 9:30am); Hyderabad vs Sargodha (TMC Ground, 9:30am); Karachi vs Faisalabad (RLCA Gulberg Ground, 1:30pm); Multan vs Quetta Bolan (TMC Ground, 1:30pm).

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2018