Mar01

RBS T20 2010 Round up

by wasim on March 1st, 2010 at 7:29 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

Group A 

Kamran Akmal and Aizaz Cheema starred with bat and ball respectively to help Lahore Lions sink Quetta Bears in the opening fixture of the RBS Twenty20 at the National Stadium in Karachi. Kamran made 68 in Lahore’s 196 but Quetta’s response was so meek, they failed to reach 100. An opening stand of 44 was the launchpad for Kamran and his brother Umar Akmal to shape a stand of 62 for the third wicket. Kamran added 38 with Kashif Siddique and remained unbeaten, hitting eight fours and a six in his knock. Cheema, the right-arm seamer, sliced through the top order to leave Quetta reeling at 24 for 6. They never recovered from that position, limping to 91 for 9. Cheema finished with 4 for 17.

To make the tournament more exciting in future teams like QUETTA should be allowed to hire players from other regions it was a totally one sided match. 

The day-night fixture at the same venue was a closer affair, with Multan Tigers beating Peshawar Panthers by 22 runs. It was a commendable fightback by Multan after they were reduced to 23 for 4, recovering to 146. Jannisar Khan did the early damage for Peshawar, before the lower order led the fightback. The 58-run stand for the seventh wicket between Naved Yasin and Mohammad Hafeez was the best of the innings. Yasin top scored with 35 while Hafeez remained on 32. Peshawar began very confidently with the openers adding 48 before it all went downhill. Hafeez and Zulfiqar Babar (4 for 26) shared the bulk of the wickets to bring Multan back in the game. Israullah scored 48 but after his dismissal, in the 14th over, the match slipped further away from Peshawar and they were ultimately bowled out for 124.

Again was the purpose of having two teams from NWFP when they don’t have enough talent to support two teams, Yasir Hameed, Rafat Ullah and Younis Khan moved to Abbottabad’d team and left Peshawar Panthers struggling.

 Group B 

Sialkot Stallions held their nerve in a cliff-hanger to overcome Karachi Zebras by four runs in the final game of the day at the National Stadium. The Zebras were favourites to finish it off as the rampant association between Khurram Manzoor and Faisal Iqbal, which had realised 125 runs in 82 balls, had to knock off 14 off 1.2 overs to finish the game. That was when panic set in, as both batsmen departed to run-outs off consecutive balls to throw away the initiative. Fourteen off six, with two new batsmen at the crease, became five required off the last ball, a task that proved too steep for Akbar-ur-Rehman as the canny Rana Naved-ul-Hasan dismissed him LBW to seal the thriller. The win was earlier set up by a strong batting effort, led from the front by the captain Shoaib Malik, who was risk-free and effective at the same time, striking just three fours in a 44-ball 67. Abdul Razzaq chipped in with a quick 38 as the score swelled to 171, despite the effort of Anwar Ali whose 3 for 24 had kept things quiet at the start. Mohammad Asif did likewise for Stallions, before Manzoor and Faisal nearly spoiled the day for the visitors, but only nearly.

For me the highlight of the match was the performance of Anwar Ali versus Rana Naveed, I saw Anwar Ali bowl after a long time not only that he has gained more speed but he also showed more control over his swing, the Zebras lost this match because of poor captaincy by Danish Kaneria and lack of bowling strength.

Khurram Manzoor and Faisal Iqbal were impressive but they couldn’t finish it off for their team.

Rana and Abdur Rehman were the most expensive bowlers.

UPdate Day 2

Group C

 

One of the tournament heavies Faisalabad Wolves began their campaign by crushing Abbottabad Rhinos by 90 runs at the National Stadium. Mohammad Hafeez and Asif Hussain set up the win with an opening stand of 89 before Asid Afridi, the left-arm seamer on debut, dismissed Hussain. Afridi later made a big impact in the final over, taking four wickets in five balls to leave Faisalabad at 165 for 7. The astute Misbah-ul-Haq, with an unbeaten 40 off 26 balls including four sixes, ensured it didn’t derail his side from an impressive total.

Abbottabad’s chase was never on, throttled early by Samiullah Khan Niazi. It turned out to be an evening for left-arm seamers as Samiullah dented the top order with three wickets. Abbottabad then lost three wickets with no addition to the score, including two to the excellent Shahid Nazir and at 57 for 7, the contest was long gone. Saeed Ajmal cleaned up the tail to finish with 3 for 4. Abbottabad are a traditionally weak side but were strengthened this year by the inclusion of a number of Peshawar players such as Yasir Hameed, Yasir Shah and Riffatullah Mohmand and will look to improve results.

Faisalabad looks very strong, their batting and bowling has a lot of depth and Misbah is looking in great form. The Rhinos never stood a chance against the strong Faisalbad team, YK didn’t played even though he is in their squad.

 

Group D

 

Karachi Dolphins got off to a winning start making light work of Hyderabad Hawks at the National Stadium. They had much to thank the visitors for pressing the self-destruct button before crawling to 119, a target that was always going to be easy.

Opener Shahzaib Hasan provided the fireworks during the chase, smashing 46 off 21 balls, including six fours and two sixes. Once Karachi had reached the halfway mark in just the fourth over, Khalid Latif continued the momentum, blitzing 32 off 15 balls. The openers’ charge was enough as the hosts sealed the win in the 10th over. Hyderabad made a watchful start with opener Sharjeel Khan managing a near-run-a-ball 39, but three run-outs in the space of three overs meant they ended on a well below-par score. Fawad Alam was Karachi’s most successful bowler with 2 for 20.

I watched this match Hyderabad started decently Sami got hammered in his first two overs by opener Sharjeel Khan, but the lack of big hitters in the Hyderabad side caused the problem Rizwan departed early who was probably the only explosive batsman in Hyderabad line up, Azeem Ghumman played a few decent strokes and was quite efficient in rotating the strike but he couldn’t hit the ball cleanly and looked out of his comfort zone against the short pitched stuff.

The highlight of the game was that both Sami and Afridi were a bit expensive, I was expecting a better performance for them since they are the key players in our national team, Pakistan should hope that Sami by the end of this tournament finds proper line and length for this format.

Another Highlight was the performance by Shahzaib Hassan and Khalid Latif both scored at a very high Strike rate, Shazaib in my opinion has a tie with Imran Nazir for the T20 WC. I also noted that a lot of key players of the national team are batting too low due to which they might not get enough match practice before the world cup. Afridi and Fawad should have batted at a higher number because they are going to get automatic selection.

I also got a chance to take a look at Tanvir Ahmed he was the highest wicket taker in the last domestic season, but I saw nothing special in his bowling, he makes a huge grunt while bowling every delivery like Sohail Khan but both bowlers are not express by any means.

The only two noteworthy pacers from Karachi are Anwar Ali and Sami.

 

 

Group A

Multan Tigers recorded their second consecutive win after cruising past Quetta Bears by seven wickets. Mohammad Hafeez and Mohammad Irfan set it up by sharing seven wickets between them to restrict Quetta to a poor 99. Rameez Alam then scored an unbeaten half-century to guide them home within 17 overs. Irfan and Hafeez cut through the middle order to reduce Quetta to 59 for 5 and it was a position from which they never recovered. Hafeez finished with 4 for 17 while Irfan took 3 for 14 before wrapping up the innings off the penultimate ball. Multan lost Babar Ali off the first ball of the chase but Rameez piloted the innings to help them coast home.

Once again Quetta team didn’t matched the quality of it’s oppsition and surrendered without putting up a fight, Multan team has the variety and depth in it’s batting they do have some quality spinners but they lack in the pace department which might haunt them against stronger oppositions.

Update 3

Rawalapindi Rams have beated Karachi Zebras by 11 runs, batting first the Rams scored 175 Ex Lahore Badshah  all rounder Tahir Mughal played a match winning innings of 58 of 36 balls and Umar Amin supported him with an aggressive 37 off 25 balls.  The Zebras could have won this match but their experienced players played selfishly, this is the second match in a row that Khurram Manzoor scored a fifty but in both matches he started slowly and didn’t improvised in the initial overs he is playing more for his place in the team rather than winning a match for his team, Rams had a decent bowling attack led by Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Rameez, but the Zebras failed the opportunity to go after the medium pace of Hammad Azam he gave onnly 23 runs from his 4 overs and took 2 wickets. The zebras dropped Asad Shafiq after one poor performance and haven’t played Shahar yar Ghani who is also an exciting batsman. Faisal Iqbal impressed me the most as this was the second match he played unselfishly and played a good aggressive knock. Zebras could have done a lot better if they were led by somebody other than Danish Kaneria who in my opinion has failed to inspire his team and has made several poor decisions in both matches.

Lahore Lions have bulldozed Peshawar Panthers, batting first Peshawar’s batsmen were clueless against Lahore’s pace attack which comprised of Aizaz Cheema, Imran Ali and Wahab Riaz Panther lost two wickets in Aizaz’s first over and they were 4 down after 7 overs with just 34 runs on the board.  Both Imran and Aizaz are quite fast and can swing the ball both ways, Aizaz Cheema was express and possess a lethal slower delivery probably the best I have seen so far by any bowler, he doesn’t change his action and the ball sinks in front of the batsman. Imran is more in the mold of Asif although a bit faster than him but his line and length is perfect and moves the ball slightly both ways and has a very accurate yorker. I think it’s time for Rao, and Rana to retire because these two are much more capable than both Rana and Rao. Wahab Riaz was also impressive but I think his shorter length would have been punished by a stronger batting line up.  Aizaz has taken 8 wickets in two matches and Imran has taken 5.

Nasir Jamshed gave a flying start to the lions chasing just 117 he scored 33 off 21 balls and Salman Butt scored 47 off just 26 balls, the match was over in just 11.5 overs Umar gul was quite expensive as he gave away 36 runs from his 3.4 overs and failed to take any wicket. Gul still was totally eclipsed by the youngsters looks like he is still out of form.

Lahore’s team is very strong and it is more than likely that they will win this tournament.