Saim stars as Panthers crush Markhors to qualify for final

LAHORE: Lake City Panthers won the honor of playing in the final of the Bahria Town Champions ODI Cup. Panthers defeated UMT Markhors by 7 wickets in the qualifier played at Iqbal Stadium on Tuesday.

The highlight of this match was the career-best performance of Panthers spinner Saim Ayub with five wickets and 33 runs, besides Hasnain also took three wickets while Usman Khan scored an aggressive half-century. Ayub was declared the player of the match.

This is the first time in this tournament that the team batting first has suffered a defeat. Allied Bank Stallions will take on Nurpur Lions in the first eliminator on Wednesday. The winner of this match will face UMT Markhors in the second eliminator on September 27.

The winner of the second eliminator will face the Lake City Panthers in the final on September 29. In the qualifier match, Markhors won the toss and elected to bat first, but the entire team was bowled out for just 137 runs in 36 overs.

Lake City Panthers achieved the target for 3 wickets in 23.4 overs. Markhors had a disappointing start. Haseebullah was dismissed by Ali Raza in his first over on an individual score of 3 runs.

In the next over, Muhammad Hasnain took the wickets of Kamran Ghulam (22) and captain Muhammad Rizwan (zero) on consecutive balls and when Fakhar Zaman was dismissed for an individual score of 11 in the fourth over, Markhors’ score was only 25 runs for 4 wickets.

Three of these four wickets that fell were the result of wicketkeeper Usman Khan’s catches. Salman Ali Agha and Iftikhar Ahmed managed to add 77 runs to the score. Iftikhar Ahmed was run out after scoring 39 runs. Salman Ali Agha scored 52 runs with the help of one six and four fours and was dismissed by Ayub. This is his third half-century in this tournament.

Ayub’s spin bowling easily wiped out Markhors’ batting. He took 5 wickets for just 24 runs which is his best bowling in List A ODI. Muhammad Hasnain gave 25 runs and dismissed 3 players. Panthers had to lose 3 wickets to reach the target of 138 runs. Saim Ayub got out after scoring 33 runs with the help of 6 fours.

Umar Sadiq played an innings of 35 runs with the help of one six and 5 fours, after that Usman Khan made his team’s win possible by playing a brilliant innings of 54 runs not out with the help of four sixes and five fours.

Brief score

UMT scores 137 (36 overs). Salman Ali Agha 52. Iftikhar Ahmed 39. Saim Ayub 24 / 5 wickets. Muhammad Hasnain 25 / 3 wickets. Panthers. 143 runs 3 players out (23.4 overs) Usman Khan 54 not out. Umar Siddique 35. Saim Ayub 33.