FAISALABAD – The playoff stage of the Bahria Town Champions One-Day Cup, involving the Qualifier, Eliminator 1 & 2 and the final, will begin on Tuesday with the UMT Markhors taking on the Lake City Panthers in the Qualifier.
In the league round match between the Markhors and Panthers, the former won by a whopping margin of 160 runs in the tournament opener.
The winner of the Qualifier will secure a spot in the final while the losing team will take on the winner of the Wednesday’s eliminator on 27 September in eliminator 2.
Eliminator 1, to be played on Wednesday 25 September, will be contested between Allied Bank Stallions and Nurpur Lions. The four teams, Markhors, Panthers, Stallions and Lions, finished first, second, third and fourth on the points table, respectively after the 10-match single league round from 12 to 22 September at the Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad.
Engro Dolphins, finished at the fifth and last position, after managing to win only one match out of four outings in the tournament.
Markhors and Panthers won three out of four league round matches each. The Stallions won two and lost two while the Lions lost three of their league round games and came out triumphant in one.
Among the top performers with the bat, Markhors’ Kamran Ghulam leads the charts with 247 runs in four matches at an average of 61.75 with the help of two centuries. Stallions’ Babar Azam and Tayyab Tahir occupy the second and third positions with 230 (76.67 average) and 221 (55.25 average) runs, respectively with one century each to their name.
On the bowling front, Panthers’ pacer Mohammad Hasnain has bagged 11 wickets including career best List-A figures of 5-74 while Stallions’ Jahandad Khan is the second leading wicket-taker with 10 scalps to his name. Zahid Mehmood (Markhors) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (Lions) are joint-third leading wicket takers with nine each.
Playoff stage schedule:
24 September – Qualifier: UMT Markhors vs Lake City Panthers, Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad at 3pm (local time)
25 September – Eliminator 1: Allied Bank Stallions vs Nurpur Lions, Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad at 3pm (local time)
27 September – Eliminator 2: Loser of Qualifier vs Winner of Eliminator 1, Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad at 3pm (local time)
29 September – Final: Winner of Qualifier vs Winner of Eliminator 2, Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad at 3pm (local time)
