Rawalakot Hawks win inaugural edition of KPL

Rawalakot Hawks defeated Muzaffarabad Tigers by 7 runs to win the inaugural edition of the Kashmir Premier League (KPL) on Tuesday.
Tigers won the toss and invited Shahid Afridi & Co to bat first.

Hawks were able to get to a total of 169 runs with prominent performances by Kashif Ali (54), Bismillah Khan (30) and Sahibzada Farhan (28).

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Meanwhile, Tigers’ captain Mohammad Hafeez and Usama Mir managed to bag two wickets each.

In reply, the Tigers started off well with openers Zeeshan Ashraf and Hafeez scoring 54 runs together in 5.2 overs.

The veteran batsman made 29 runs with the help of six boundaries while Zeeshan managed to score 46 off 26 balls.

The Tigers batsmen could get the better of Hawks’ bowler and kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Later on in the chase, Sohail Tanvir played a resilient knock of 21 runs. The chasing side was struggling till Mohammad Wasim Jr played a cameo of 22 runs in just 12 balls.

Tigers needed 10 off the last over, however, Inzamam-ul-Haq Junior, who had scored 10 crucial runs in the penultimate over, got out while playing switch hit. Usama Mir also tried to hit out the left-arm slow bowler Asif Afridi but failed to do so who was taking pace off the ball and lost their wickets.

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Afridi received the player of the match award for his match-winning performance that led his side to the title win.

Meanwhile Hussain Talat was named the player of the tournament whereas Zeeshan Ashraf is declared the best batsmen of the league.

Hawks’ Afridi was awarded the best bowler award while Bismillah Khan secured the best wicketkeeper title.