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KARACHI: Central Punjab revived their semi-final aspirations in the National T20 Cup on Friday when the returning Pakistan duo of Babar Azam and Faheem Ashraf combined to put an end to reigning champions Northern’s remarkable 10-match winning streak in Rawalpindi.
The opening fixture of the 19-game First XI competition’s second leg at the Pindi Cricket Stadium was a virtual one-way traffic with Faheem excelling with both ball and bat to become well-deserved recipient of the match-of-the-match award.
Babar, the Pakistan limited-overs captain, sportingly let Faheem steal the limelight by not going for a fifth T20 century which was easily within his reach. Playing his first game since completing his T20 Blast stint with English county Somerset on Sept 20, Babar toyed with the Northern bowling to finish on a classy 86.
The 25-year-old Babar’s 40th half-century in the format was embedded with 11 boundaries and a brace of sixes as he and Faheem added 105 for unbroken third-wicket partnership from just 51 deliveries after sharing an opening stand of 54 in 42 balls with Kamran Akmal.
Kamran, the former Pakistan wicket-keeper/batsman, was twice dropped during his 19-ball innings of 21 before he offered a return catch to Shadab Khan, who also got rid of Abdullah Shafiq for three.
Northern’s previous defeat — since the event was drastically revamped last season and confined to only six outfits — was also against Central Punjab almost a year ago (Oct 15) at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad where they sealed a four-wicket win on the penultimate ball of the game.
But Central Punjab’s latest victory — which was only their second in the ongoing campaign — was easily more clinical as Faheem scored 19 of the 20 runs conceded by his Pakistan team-mate Mohammad Amir and finished the lopsided encounter by nonchalantly hoisting the left-arm paceman over long leg for a six. The 26-year-old left-hander’s 26-ball knock, which was just his second 50-plus T20 score, included seven fours and another six.
Earlier in the afternoon, Faheem — coming on as second change — had rocked the champions, who had elected to bat first, with three early strikes in his first spell as the right-arm seamer dismissed Sohail Akhtar (17), Rohail Nazir (4) and in-form opener Zeeshan Malik (9) in that order after fellow left-arm paceman Sohaibullah had sent back Umar Amin for a duck on the fourth ball of the match.
Faheem later came back to get rid of Imad Wasim — returning to the side to take over the reins from Shadab Khan, who had led during the Multan leg — for a third-ball duck to with brilliant analysis of 4-18 in four overs.
The highpoint of the faltering Northern batting display was Asif Ali. The hard-hitting Pakistan reject bludgeoned five sixes and four fours in a blistering 40-ball 67, while adding 87 for the fifth wicket with Shadab (39 off 25 balls, five boundaries). Both of them fell to leg-spinner Usman Qadir on successive deliveries in the 16th over.
Northern somehow managed to reach 165-9 but it was never going to be enough against a side which was considerably strengthened by the availability of Faheem and Babar, who is currently the second-ranked batsman in the ICC T20 rankings.
When this report was being filed, Sindh were in action against Southern Punjab who have yet to taste success in the competition after suffering four straight losses in Multan.
Scores in brief:
NORTHERN 165-9 in 20 overs (Asif Ali 67, Shadab Khan 39; Faheem Ashraf 4-18, Usman Qadir 2-36, Ehsan Adil 2-37); CENTRAL PUNJAB 167-2 in 17 overs (Babar Azam 86 not out, Faheem Ashraf 52 not out, Kamran Akmal 21; Shadab Khan 2-39)
Saturday’s fixtures: Balochistan vs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (3:00pm); Sindh vs Central Punjab (7:30pm)