National T20 Cup: Sindh defeats Southern Punjab

National T20 Cup: Sindh defeated Southern Punjab by 45 runs in the 24th match of the National T20 Cup 2021 at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

Player of the match Sharjeel Khan dashed Southern Punjab’s dreams of qualifying for the semi-final.

Southern Punjab has only 2 wins and can go to a maximum of six points if they beat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in their last group match on 10 October.

Sharjeel spanked as many as 13 boundaries and 4 sixes as he made almost 52% of Sindh’s 196 runs. His innings was his fearless strokeplay.

Sindh lost Ahsan Ali, Sharjeel’s opening partner, in the first over. He put 37 off 20 in the powerplay with Shan Masood, who contributed 22 off 15 (hitting 4 boundaries) and caught behind off Mohammad Imran on the first ball of the 5th over.

He brought up his 100, fourth time in his career and first for Sindh.

Southern Punjab’s run chase suffered a major blow in the first over when Zeeshan Ashraf got caught in the first over. The first 3 overs brought only 12 runs for Southern Punjab.

Southern Punjab was all out for 151 with 7 balls spare. Rumman finished with 3 for 23, while Anwar Ali, Danish Aziz and Zahid Mahmood picked up two wickets each.

Sindh: 196-7, 20 overs (Sharjeel Khan 101, Saud Shakeel 26, Shan Masood 22; Mohammad Imran 2-32, Naseem Shah 2-49)

Southern Punjab: 151 all out, 18.5 overs (Tayyab Tahir 32, Mohammad Imran 29, Aamer Yamin 27, Salman Ali Agha 21; Rumman Raees 3-23, Anwar Ali 2-18, Danish Aziz 2-30, Zahid Mahmood 2-40)

Squad

Sindh:

Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain and wicketkeeper), Anwar Ali (vice-captain), Abrar Ahmed, Ahsan Ali, Danish Aziz, Hassan Mohsin, Khurram Manzoor, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Taha, Ruman Raees, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood, Shahnawaz Dahani, Sharjeel Khan and Zahid Mahmood.

Southern Punjab:

Sohaib Maqsood (captain), Zeeshan Ashraf (vice-captain), Amir Yamin, Azam Khan (wicketkeeper), Dilbar Hussain, Faisal Akram, Hassan Khan, Imran Randhawa, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Ilyas, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Umer Khan, Zain Abbas and Zia-ul-Haq.