Peshawar beat Pindi by four wickets

Lahore, Oct 2: An unbeaten seventh wicket partnership of 56 between Hameed Gul and Zulfiqar Jan of Peshawar carved out a four-wicket win over Rawalpindi in Group 'D' day and night match of the National One-Day Cricket Tournament at the Qadhafi Stadium on Saturday evening. Peshawar 209 runs required for a win with two overs to spare, losing six wickets.

Having been put in to bat first by the Peshawar captain Jahangir Khan Senior on a good pitch despite winning the toss, the Rawalpindi team had scored 208. Thin and unassuming Hameed Gul played a responsible, unbeaten knock of 71 on 123 balls, hitting five boundaries.

The Peshawar had earlier lost four wickets with only 47 runs when Hameed Gul shared a fifth wicket stand of 80 runs on 125 balls with Shoaib Khan (49 on 56 balls) to avert the disaster.

Rawalpindi's Muhammad Fayyaz had done early damage by claiming three wickets. Dew and dropping of catches also brought downfall of the Rawalpindi side.

In the afternoon, Peshawar side captain Jahangir Khan Senior won the toss but put in the Rawalpindi side to bat first on an easy-paced pitch. Despite excellent bowling by Nauman Habib, particularly in the closing stages of the innings, the Rawalpindi team was allowed to hit a good total of 208 all out in exactly 50 overs. Shoddy fielding of Peshawar players was much responsible for that rather than responsible batting by any batsman. None of them could score a half-century even.

Khawar Ali top-scored with a knock of 38 before being bowled by Muhammad Bilal, to offer the bowler his only wicket. He, too, could dispatch the ball only once for a four and once over the boundary line. Incidentally, it was Muhammad Bilal, who spilled a ball over the boundary line after putting both hands to it.

Nauman Habib had Shahid Mahmood (16 on 22 balls with 3 fours) caught by Shoaib Khan. Tauseef Ali (24 on 56 balls) was caught by Hammad Haider off Nauman when he went for a big hit. Shakeel Nawaz (5) fell to a catch by Hammad Haider off Nauman. On last ball of 50th over bowled by Nauman, Jawwad Hameed was caught by Hameed Gul after scoring 10 on five deliveries.

Hammad Haider took two wickets. He claimed opener Ahmad Said (30 on 46 balls with four fours) leg before wicket. His second victim was Naseer Ahmad, who jumped out of his crease to hoist Hammad after scoring quick 31 on 30 balls (hitting two boundaries and a six) to be smartly stumped by Zulfiqar Jan.

The Peshawar side completed 50 overs, 20 minutes before closing time of 6 pm and the Rawalpindi team mustered 208.