Pakistan Television and the State Bank of Pakistan secured wins in the day-night fixtures of the sixth round of the President’s Cup in Karachi.
PTV rode on Shamyl Hussain’s second century in the tournament to 321-9 against SNGPL and later restricted them to 300-9 with the help of Faisal Akram’s three wickets.
Shamyl Hussain (143 off 124 balls) shared a vital 198-run third-wicket stand with Mohammad Suleman (86), following which PTV lost the next seven wickets for a mere 80 runs.
Aamir Jamal picked up three wickets, while his fellow pacers Muhammad Shahzad and Shahnawaz Dahani struck twice each.
SNGPL’s pursuit of the 322-run target kept getting dented by the regular fall of wickets despite half-centuries from Kamran Ghulam (66) and Muhammad Shahzad (53).
Skipper Shan Masood (45) and Kamran added 65 runs after Azan Awais’ early departure. PTV spinners Ali Usman and Faisal Akram then struck in back-to-back overs to reduce SNGPL to 86-3. Shahzad provided the impetus at this juncture with his 10-boundaries laden knock before falling prey to Mohammad Taha.
SNGPL’s chase didn’t recover after Awais Zafar (26) and Kamran were removed in a space of 18 balls after adding 52 runs for the fifth wicket.
From 224-6 in the 38th over, it became a catching game for SNGPL with Haseebullah (20), Aamir Jamal (19) and Sajid Khan (26) departing after small periods of stability. Mohammad Irfan (16 not out) and Shahnawaz Dahani (9 not out) remained unbeaten in the end, while the game was long gone out of SNGPL’s grip.
SBP thumped WAPDA by 110 runs to hand them their fifth defeat in the tournament and finally got back to winning ways, themselves bagging their second win.
After SBP opted to bat, WAPDA’s Sharoon Siraj bamboozled their batter with his off-spin, removing six of the top seven batters. SBP were left reeling at 101/6 in 24.3 overs before Kashif Bhatti (65) and Ghazi Ghori (58) put on a game-changing 119-run stand.
Mehram Mumtaz (20) and Rameez Aziz’s 15 not out meant that SBP crossed the 250-run mark and had a fighting total on the board in the form of 257-9. Akif Javed picked up two wickets, while Sharoon’s six came for 29 runs in 10 overs.
In turn, WAPDA had no answer to the spin bowling challenge posed by SBP as they folded for 147 in 37 overs with only Rafay Rana (28), Bismillah Khan (24) and Nabi Gul (22) crossing the 20-run mark.
SBP’s trio of spinners, including Salman Ali Agha (4-40), Kashif Bhatti (3-36) and Mehran Mumtaz (1-21) shared eight wickets among themselves in 28 overs combined.
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