Thursday, October 9, 2008

Shoaib Malik makes it 3 in a row for the Stallions

The Sialkot Stallions completed a hatrick of domestic 20-20 titles as they beat the Karachi Dolphins by 7 wickets in the final of the RBS National 20-20 Cup last night.

Shahid Afridi won the toss and elected to bat first but the Dolphins' batsmen struggled against the pace of Sarfaraz Ahmed (2-23) and the spin of Shoaib Malik (2-29).

Besides Fawad Alam, who scored 40 off 31 deliveries, none of the batsmen got going as the Dolphins' innings closed at 125-9 in 20 overs.

Khalid Latid (15 off 16), Naumanullah (14 off 19), Afridi (12 off 9), and Sarfraz Ahmed (16 off 10), all got starts but none of them could build on them.

The Stallions got off to a good start with Kamran Younis (31 off 37) and Mansoor Amjad (39 off 35) easily scoring off the Dolphins' bowling.

As soon as Afridi came on though, the tide turned as the Stallions' scoring rate dropped and they lost a few wickets, but 125 was never going to be enough.

Brothers Shoaib Malik (19*) and Adeel Malik sealed the game for the Stallions in the last over of the innings as Adeel smashed an unbeaten 23 off only 11 deliveries with the help of 2 sixes and a boundary.

This was the Stallions' 3rd victory in a row in the domestic 20-20 championship and they now join the champions and the runners up from the IPL, Australia, South Africa, and England in the inaugral 20-20 Champions League to be held in December.

Shoaib Malik, the Stallions' captain, was declared man of the match for his 2 wickets and unbeaten 19 at the end of the innings.

Salman Butt was declared the best batsman of the tournament - with 152 runs from 3 innings, he was the highest run scorer in the tournament.

Sohail Khan, who created domestic records with his bowling last season, got the best bowler award for his 6 wickets in 4 matches even though his Dolphins skipper, Shahid Afridi ended as the highest wicket taker in the tournament - 7 at an average of 11.28.

Afridi's Dolphins failed to win the title, ending as runners up for the 2nd time in a row and this win definitely puts Shoaib Malik ahead if him in the captaincy race.

Make your pitch on this post...



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2 Pitched:

  1. Tazeen said...
     

    I wish Shoaib Malik could have shown similar results with the national side as well.

  2. Q said...
     

    He did last night Tazeen !!

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