Multan: Musa Khan bagged three wickets to lead the bowling charge as Northern beat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) by 79 runs in the opening match of the National T20 Cup at Multan Cricket Stadium.
Northern dominated throughout with a solid second-wicket partnership between Zeeshan Malik and Haider Ali. The duo powered Northern to 242-3 in 20 overs by scoring the highest second-wicket partnership in the history of the tournament’s history. 180-runs partnership.
19-year-old Haider Ali and 23-year-old Zeeshan Malik partnered for 180 today which goes down as the highest second wicket partnership in the history of the #NationalT20Cup
Previous best was between 169* between Yasir Hameed and Younis Khan in 2014#HarHaalMainCricket | #NORvKP pic.twitter.com/RJMA9mOBY7
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) September 30, 2020
Haider scored 90 off 51 balls whereas Zeeshan made 77 off 47 balls. Junaid Khan was the pick of the bowlers for KP, picking 2-44 in four overs.
48 balls
7 4s
5 6s
90 runsWell played @iamhaideraly!
#NationalT20Cup | #HarHaalMainCricket | #NORvKP pic.twitter.com/saKlPUfOcG
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) September 30, 2020
In reply, KP seemed under pressure as they lost opener Fakhar Zaman for just six runs. Sahibzad Farhan resisted a bit as the right-handed batter scored 62 off 48 balls with the help of six fours and two sixes.
Fall of wickets! #NationalT20Cup | #HarHaalMainCricket | #NORvKP pic.twitter.com/8heKw2SyRs
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) September 30, 2020
Iftikhar Ahmed was the second-highest scorer from KP with 28 runs off 15 balls laced with two fours and as many maximums. Shoaib Malik made 20 of 19 balls.
Apart from Musa, Sohail Tanvir and Mohammad Nawaz bagged two wickets each while Haris Rauf and Shahdab Khan shared a wicket apiece.
Haider Ali bagged the man-of-the-match award for his highlighting score of 90 runs. He scored his maiden National T20 Cup fifty.
https://twitter.com/TheRealPCB/status/1311303611373232129
Squads
Northern
Zeeshan Malik, Ali Imran, Haider Ali, Umar Amin, Shadab Khan, (C), Asif Ali, Rohail Nazir, Rohail Nazir, Sohail Tanvir, Musa Khan, Muhammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf.
KPK
Fakhar Zaman, Sahibzad Farhan, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Iftikhar Ahmed, Muhammad Mohsin, Wahab Riaz, Usman Shinwari, Shaheen Afridi, Juniad Khan.