Shoaib Malik hit unbeaten 50 off 31 balls
Shoaib Malik slammed an unbeaten half-century to help defending champions Sialkot Stallions register their third successive victory in Faysal Bank T20 Cup with a crushing eight-wicket win over Karachi Zebras at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on Monday.
The skipper smacked 50 off 31 balls with the help of four boundaries and two sixes and shared an unbroken 74-run stand with Haris Sohail (34 off 44) as Sialkot overhauled the diminutive 112-run target with 20 balls to spare.
Earlier, leg-spinner Adeel Malik justified his brother’s decision to bowl first and picked up three wickets for 19 runs to restrict Karachi to a miserable 111-5.
Sialkot openers Imran Nazir (9) and Shakeel Ansar (11) once again failed to deliver a convincing start and departed cheaply.
However Sohail and Shoaib started rebuilding the innings steadily and took Sialkot into comfort zone with the frequent rotation of strike. Towards the end, the skipper cracked some blistering shots and propelled the ball past rope persistently.
Earlier, despite of getting a brisk 41-run stand from openers Rameez Aziz (21 off 29) and Rameez Raja (21 off 15) Karachi failed to sustain the momentum and slumped to 3-69 following Adeel’s back-to-back outbursts.
Faisal Iqbal added 22 runs on board before perishing to pacer Naved-ul-Hasan while Daniyal Ahsan scored unbeaten 24 runs.