Lahore Eagles v Sialkot Stallions: Faysal Bank T20 Cup, 1st Semi-Final – Match Recap
Sialkot Stallions stepped into the finale of the ongoing Faysal Bank T20 Cup after clinching a six-wicket win against Lahore Eagles in the first semi-final at National Stadium Karachi, on Saturday, October 1, 2011.
It was Shoaib Malik’s evening, as he played a captain’s knock of 88 runs and led his side to an emphatic victory.
It was a good toss to win for the Eagles, as the wicket was flat and wonderful to bat on. The two openers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taufeeq-Umar-c92889, started off things nicely and put together a fantastic 86-run partnerhip for the first wicket.
Taufeeq lost his wicket after scoring 33, but Farhat kept on punishing Stallions with his blistering stroke-play.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sialkot-c842 skipper, Malik, was the one who provided his side two key breakthroughs and brought things back to normal. Farhat was bowled out when he was looking dangerous on 73. His marvellous innings included 11 boundaries and a mighty six.
After the departure of the two left-handed openers, Lahore’s domination on the game started fading away as the Sialkot bowlers made a strong comeback after being hammered in the initial overs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kamran-Sajid-c70141 could only manage
to gather a couple of runs.
Aki Azmat took a nice start to his innings and amassed 18 runs before http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Raza-Hasan-c84407 knocked his stumps down with a classy delivery. Since Malik and company maintained good pressure, the rest of the Lahore batsmen went back to the pavilion without reaching double
figures.
Consequently, the Eagles collapsed on 167 after 19.3 overs despite a very good start at the top-order.
Malik, and the veteran http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdur-Rehman-c41691 dismissed one batsman each.
In reply, the Stallions were not able to begin the show with a bang. The two openers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shakeel-Ansar-c89546 gave away their wicket cheaply, putting the responsibility on the skipper.
The former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Yousuf-c89461, batted tremendously and made the Eagles realize that it would not be an easy task to crush former champions.
Both batsmen piled up 127 runs for the third-wicket-stand and steered their side to a very strong position.
Yousuf was unlucky to get out on 49, but the skipper continued to play attacking cricket. He smashed the ball all over the park and took his side home single-handedly. With the help of nine cracking boundaries and three huge sixes, the all-rounder clattered
an unbeaten 88.
Courtesy to Malik’s aggressive show with the bat, the Stallions achieved the target comprehensively with seven balls to spare.
From Lahore's bowling department, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mustafa-Iqbal-c78121 returned with a scalp to his credit.
Following his extra-ordinary batting and bowling performance, Malik won the ‘Player of the Match, award.
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