Thursday, February 14, 2008

Pentangular Day 4 - Sindh Win, Federal Areas Draw

On the final day, favorites Sindh comfortably reached their target of 309 owing to a well made century by opener Khurram Manzoor. Resuming their chase at 130-0, Khalid Latif and Khurram took the score to 161 before Khalid fell for 72. Khurram then continued his subdued and watchful innings in partnership with Naumanullah who fell leg bfore to Samiullah fo 35 after a 62 run partnership.

There was a minor hiccup at that point as Sindh collapsed from 223-1 to 226-4 as Naumanullah, Khurram (118) and Faisal Iqbal (0) fell in quick succession. From there on Fawad Alam (51* of 31 balls), who has played a handful of ODIs for Pakistan and skipper Shahid Afridi (29 of 34) took Sindh past the winning line.

Afridi praised all his team mates after the win saying "Sindh achieved a good result from the match. At one stage the home team was in a difficult situation but the team’s batsmen helped it achieve the victory target of 309." Afridi also mentioned that it was a team effort and that a come from behind win after conceding a 1st innings lead will help his to perform well in the remaining matches as well.

In the other game the Federal Capital batsmen held Punjab for a draw. The Capital Areas' effort was led by test discard Bazid Khan who scored a composed 172, and he was well supported by Usman Saeed (65) and Yasir Arafat (56*).

Results:

Sindh beat NWFP by 5 wickets. Sindh 6 points, NWFP 0.
Federal Capital Areas Drew with Punjab. Punjab 3 pioints, Federal Areas 0.

Now the tournament takes a break for a week due to the elections in the country and action will resume again on 22nd February with 2 more matches: Federal Capital vs Baluchistan and Punjab vs NWFP - the latter will be a cracker as it will pit Younis Khan vs the rest of the Pakistan middle order (Malik, Yousuf, and Misbah).

I also found out why skipper Shoaib Malik missed the 1st match. He was in Dubai recording an interview for GEO Tv and got stuck their due to a delayed flight and couldn't make in time for the match. Pakistani airlines I tell you. Actually all airlines these days.

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