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Report

Malik claims five in Sialkot win

A round-up of the Faysal Bank Super Eight T-20 Cup matches that took place on March 28

ESPNcricinfo staff
29-Mar-2012
Junaid Zia and Taufeeq Umar led Lahore Eagles to a comfortable 34-run win over Rawalpindi Rams in Rawalpindi. Zia scalped three wickets, two of which came in his first over, and made the chase even tougher for Rawalpindi by giving away only 14 runs in his spell. By the time Lahore had bowled ten overs, Rawalpindi had lost half of their side. Opener Awais Zia scored a half-century and was the eighth wicket to fall in an otherwise underwhelming batting performance, where the next highest score was 14. Rawalpindi were all out for 124 in 17.5 overs. Batting first, Lahore had set a strong platform with a 64 run partnership between Taufiq Umar and Imran Farhat in 6.4 overs. But Rawalpindi controlled the second half of the innings with regular wickets. In fact, except Umar and Farhat, no other batsman managed a double-digit score. Umar, who scored 76, was run out in a dramatic last over by Sohail Tanvir, where including Umar, four wickets (three run-outs) fell off the last three legal balls.
Shoaib Malik's five-wicket haul wrecked Karachi Dolphins' top-order as they lost to Sialkot Stallions by nine wickets in Rawalpindi. Karachi chose to bat and made steady progress in the first ten overs, losing only one wicket. In the twelfth over, however, Malik removed both Shahzaib Hasan and Asad Shafiq, the two set batsmen, in two balls to dent the scoring-rate. He sparked another collapse in the sixteenth over with two wickets, as Karachi lost six wickets for 20 runs to finish with 123. In reply, Sialkot only lost their opener, Shakeel Ansar, as they chased down the target in 16.1 overs. Imran Nazir was particularly aggressive as he smashed 76 runs off 47 balls with five sixes, while Haris Sohail held up the other end with a solid 43.