RAWALPINDI, March 22: Fine half-centuries by Junaid Zia and Zia-ul-Haq powered Rawalpindi to a two-wicket victory over Peshawar on Saturday in the NBP One-day Patron’s Cup Pool at KRL Stadium.

Peshawar’s defeat sent them out of reckoning for the quarterfinals from Pool ‘C’. The two qualifiers from this group are KRL and Faisalabad, who won on Saturday in contrasting styles.

Peshawar, who were asked to bat first, collected an impressive 272 for six, thanks to Mohammad Fayyaz’s knock of 95 and an innings of 58 from Aftab Khan.

Rawalpindi, after losing two quick wickets, got their act together to overhaul Peshawar’s total with five balls to spare.

Junaid, playing confidently struck five fours in his 72-ball 50 while Zia was more brisk and scored 51 runs off only 45 balls.

Junaid, who also picked up two wickets was adjudged Man-of-the-Match jointly with Zia.

For Peshawar, the wicket-takers were Mohammad Siddique and Jan Nisar Khan, both claiming two each.

KRL recorded a comfortable 100-run victory over Sialkot in s record-breaking encounter at Saga Ground in Sialkot after piling up a record 408 for five in their 50 overs.

Saeed bin Nasir, who was not considered for Sharjah Cup, gave the national selectors a reminder of his batting talents with a magnificent unbeaten 186 off 130 deliveries.

Saeed, who slammed 25 fours and six sixes, shared a record third-wicket partnership of 248 with Pakistan batsman Misbah-ul-Haq, who hit 106 off only 83 balls with the aid of 10 fours and four sixes.

Sialkot, in reply, batted gallantly to reach 308 in 49.5 overs.

Faisalabad ended National Bank’s hopes of progressing into the last eight with a remarkable last ball victory at Iqbal Stadium.

Sami-ul-Haq led the way with 103 off 96 balls as the hosts overhauled the bankers’ total of 298-9 off the final ball of the match.

Scoreboard

PESHAWAR:

Zeeshan Mohsin b Shahid 8

Abid Afridi run out 0

Aftab Khan c Junaid b Ajmal 58

Mohammad Fayyaz c Zubair b Junaid 95

Asmatullah c Shiraz b Junaid 13

Sajjad Ahmed st Zubair b Shiraz 20

Bilal Marwat run out 47

Janisar Khan not out 10

EXTRAS (LB-5, W-14, NB-2) 21

TOTAL (for six wkts, 50 overs) 272

FALL OF WKTS: 1-6, 2-16, 3-130, 4-175, 5-206, 6-213, 7-272.

BOWLING: Junaid Zia 10-0-57-2; Shahid Mahmood 8-1-34-0; Shiraz Khalid 10-1-41-1; Nauman Aman 1-0-10-1; Babar Naeem 10-0-52-0; Zia-ul-Haq 1-0-10-0; Ajmal Shah 10-0-63-1.

RAWALPINDI:

Sohail Nasir c Fayyaz b Siddique 15

Babar Naeem b Nauman 0

Junaid Zia b Aftab 50

Shiraz Khalid lbw b Janisar 6

Nauman Aman c Atif b Janisar 12

M. Taj Khan lbw b Siddique 34

Ajmal Shah c & b Bilal 23

Zia-ul-Haq not out 51

Waheed Ahmed run out 27

Shahid Mahmood not out 26

EXTRAS: (B-1, LB-11, W-14, NB-4) 29

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 49.1 overs) 273

FALL OF WKTS: 1-3, 2-34, 3-51, 4-83, 5-125, 6-156, 7-172, 8-208.

BOWLING: Nauman Habib 9-0-47-1; Mohammad Siddique 10-0-69-2; Janisar Khan 7.1-0-39-2; Aftab Khan 10-1-24-1; Mohammad Fayyaz 8-0-45-0; Bilal Marwat 5-0-37-1.

RESULT: Rawalpindi won by two wickets.

Results of other Pool ‘C’ matches:

*At Saga Ground, Sialkot:

KRL beat Sialkot by 100 runs.

KRL 408-4 in 50 overs (Saeed bin Nasir 186 not out, Misbah-ul-Haq 106, Ali Naqvi 62, Shoaib Akhtar 28; Shahid Khan 3-93);

SIALKOT 308 in 49.5 overs (Shahid Yousuf 95, Adnan Zaheer 50, Shahzad Malik 49, Tahir Mughal 34, Shakeel Ansar 23; Saeed Anwar Junior 4-47, Yasir Arafat 2-71, Saeed Ajmal 2-58).

*At Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad:

Faisalabad beat National Bank by three wickets.

NATIONAL BANK 298-9 in 50 overs (Salman Butt 79, Imran Nazir 71, Akhtar Sarfraz 42, Naumanullah 24; Tauqir Hussain 2-52);

FAISALABAD 302-7 in 50 overs (Sami-ul-Haq 106, Mohammad Salman 75, Asif Hussain 67, Shahid Jalal 21; Shabbir Ahmed 2-44, Zahid Saeed 2-66).