Multan: In the 13th match of the National T20 Cup, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa defeated Central Punjab by 29 runs thanks to the best batting of Fakhar zaman and secured the second position in the points table.
Despite a 92-run partnership between Kamran Akmal and Abdullah Shafiq, the entire Central Punjab team piled up 149 runs. Kamran Akmal (47) and Abdullah Shafiq (43) were all out. The 21-year-old batsman is still the top scorer of the event, scoring 236 runs in 5 matches.
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Apart from these two batsmen, no other batsman from Central Punjab was able to play in front of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s bowling and one after the other got out and kept returning to the pavilion. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Arshad Iqbal, Junaid Khan, Asif Afridi and Wahab Riaz took 2.2 wickets each.
Earlier, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa captain Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and elected to bat first, while opener Fakhar Zaman scored his second consecutive half-century in the event. He scored 66 runs with the help of 3 fours and 5 sixes.
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With the help of Shoaib Malik’s not out 27 and Asif Afridi’s 20 off 7 balls, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa scored 178 for 7 in 20 overs. Captain Muhammad Rizwan scored 23 runs. Ahmed Bashir took 3 wickets for 32 runs.
Fakhar Zaman was awarded Man of the Match. The left-handed batsman said that the pitch was not easy to bat at the beginning of the match, but as the ball got older, he accelerated the pace of scoring, which was to his advantage. He added that he has been working hard for the last few times, he is happy that the team won because of his individual performance, he will try to maintain the continuity of good performance in the upcoming matches.
The two teams will now compete at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi on October 14.