Multan: Haris Rauf and Muhammad Musa bagged three wickets each to help Northern restrict Central Punjab (CP) to 120 and win their third consecutive match by 34 runs in the National T20 Cup.
Set to chase 156 in 20 overs, CP were off to a shaky start after they lost their wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal the second over. Akmal went for one and the pressure was the chasing side.
Abid Ali and Abdullah Shafique took the inning from there and added 32 runs in the team’s total. Abdullah fell prey to Musa in the fifth over to leave CP tattering at 33 for 2. Abid consolidated his inning and scored 36 runs off 53 balls but couldn’t continue for long as Musa got rid of him. His inning included five fours.
Rizwan Hussain and stand-in skipper Saad Nasim scored 14 runs each for their team.
Apart from Haris and Rauf, veteran Sohail Tanvir bagged two wickets for 15 runs.
Earlier, Northern scored 155-8 with their batsmen making brief contributions. Zeeshan Malik scored 20 off 30 balls whereas his opening partner Ali Imran managed to score 15 runs with the help of two boundaries.
Skipper Shadab Khan played 17 balls and scored 30 runs with the help of two boundaries and as many maximums.
Umar Amin scored 21 while Asif Ali scored a quick 24 off 11 balls. Rohail Nazir, in the end, played a cameo of 21 runs to further strengthen his team’s total.
Usman Qadir took three wickets for CP while Ehsan Adil, Zafar Gohar, Saad Nasim, and Irfan Khan bagged a wicket each.