The opening match of Faysal bank T20 cup contended between Peshawar Panthers and Faisalabad Wolves, unfolded in a slow motion victory for Faisalabad Wolves. Earlier, Panthers won the toss and posted 128 runs on the board owing to contributions made by Iftikhar Ahmad (20), Mohammad Fayyaz (23) and consolidating 22 runs by Zohaib Khan. Hasan Mehmood claimed three wickets with an acute economy rate of 2.75 to reduce Panthers to an unsubstantial score, considering the standards of T20 cricket.
In their chase, Wolves marched along rather aimlessly and riskily to claim victory with two wickets in hand. Apart from concrete innings by Waqas (man of the match), Wolves had not much to cheer about. Much was expected of Umar Gul, who was not backed by apt ground fielding and his team ended up giving precious points to Wolves in group A.
The next match between star-studded Lahore Lions and propitious Karachi Zebras evolved to be icing on the cake for the cricket-exiled nation
and Sunday night crowd in the Pindi Stadium. Zebras posted a respectable 135/5 in their allotted 20 overs courtesy Khurram Manzoor (31) , Ramiz Aziz (37) and the skipper Hasan Raza (33). Abdul Razzaq, Imran Ali and Sohail Ahmad claimed one wicket each for the Lions.
Lions were jittery in response, losing 2 early wickets just for 15 runs. Umar Akmal steadied the innings with Ahmad Shehzad, who later went on to the win the match for Lions with 6 wickets and also collected man of the match award. Anwar Ali, Azam Hussain, Uzair-ul-haq and Danish Kaneria grabbed one wicket apiece.
Both matches were witnessed by a decent crowd that is expected to rise in numbers as the tournament progresses.
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