Sialkot Stallions 4-144 (Haris Sohail 63*, Shoaib Malik 39, Liam Dawson 1-14) beat Hampshire 8-143 (Glenn Maxwell 42, James Vince 18, Umaid Asif 2-42) by six wickets.
A fourth wicket partnership at the crucial stage of the game between Haris Sohail and Shoaib Malik assisted Sialkot Stallions to a decent victory vs. Hampshire.
Hampshire scored 143 runs with two wickets in hand at the end of the scheduled 20 overs. Sialkot Stallions were in trouble during the initial part of their innings but thrashed 144 runs for the loss of four wickets in 19.1 overs.
Haris Sohail (Sialkot Stallions) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his match winning unbeaten innings of 63 runs.
The final match of the pool 1 in the Champions League Twenty20 2012 was played on Thursday, October 11, 2012, at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. Both teams are already out of the tournament since they were beaten by Auckland who has qualified for the group stage.
Shoaib Malik won the toss for Sialkot Stallions and invited Hampshire to bat first under cloudy conditions. Michael Carberry and James Vince got one run in the first over but the latter dispatched three consecutive fours in the next over. Vince ran himself out in the fourth over as the total reached 25 in 3.4 overs and the skipper of Hampshire, Jimmy Adams, walked in the centre. Carberry was caught by Raza Hasan off Shoaib Malik at 11 after the addition of 10 runs to the score.
The Sialkot Stallions bowlers took over and Hampshire was suffering at 4-64 in 10.4 overs when Glenn Maxwell and Shahid Afridi got together in the park. Maxwell decided to accelerate the run rate and got 10 runs in the 12th over with 1 six and 1 four followed by a couple of sixes in the next over. The hundred of the innings was scored on the second delivery of the 15th over with another four from Maxwell as Afridi was dropped two balls later.
The steamy partnership between the two resulted in 56 runs from just 36 deliveries as Glenn Maxwell was gone for 42 off 29 balls with 3 towering sixes and 4 fours. Shahid Afridi became the next victim on the following ball for 14 runs as Hampshire scored 143 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs.
Umaid Asif was the most successful bowler with two wickets whereas Raza Hasan, Shoaib Malik, Naved-ul-Hasan and Bilawal Bhatti shared one wicket each.
Silakot faced a big blow when their aggressive opener, Imran Nazir, was clean bowled by Liam Dawson on the fourth ball of the first over. The first wicket fell without a run on the board as Haris Sohail joined in with the other opener, Shakeel Ansar, who hit two fours in the fourth over. Shakeel Ansar tried to speed up the run rate but his wickets were broken in the next over by David Griffiths for 15 runs. The problems multiplied when the competent middle order batsman, Shahid Yousuf lost his wicket for just three runs and Sialkot Stallions were reeling at 3-28 in 6.5 overs.
Haris Sohail and Shoaib Malik decided to play an offensive role and started off with 15 runs in the eighth over. The next over ended up with 11 runs with 1 six and 1 four as the first fifty of the innings was attained in the same over. Shoaib Malik opened up with 1 six and even four in the 11th over and added another 2 fours two overs later. The boundaries were sprinkling from the willows of the two batsmen and the hundred of the innings was attained in the 15th over.
The next two overs counted for 4 fours and the score was enhanced to 124 after 17 overs. Sialkot Stallions required 20 runs to win the match from the last 18 balls as Shoaib Malik was stumped on the first ball of the 18th over off Shahid Afridi for 39 from just 25 balls with 1 six and 6 fours. Haris Sohail continued with his aggression and remained unbeaten for 63 off 57 deliveries comprising 1 six and 8 fours as Sialkot Stallions achieved the target by hammering 144 runs for the loss of four wickets with five balls to spare.
Liam Dawson, David Griffiths, Chris Wood and Shahid Afridi were the only wicket takers with one each.
Sialkot Stallions won the only match of pool 1 by a big margin of six wickets. Hamshire was unable to win a single game out of the two played and Auckland rushed to the group stage by winning against both teams.
Leave a Reply