Champions One-Day Cup: Khushdil’s 60 in vain as Dolphins defeat Lions
The Dolphins defeated the Lions by 16 runs after successfully seizing the latter’s 327-run chase in the 10th match of the Champions One-Day Cup at the Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad on Sunday.
After failing to control the onslaught of the Dolphins’ batters in the first innings, the Shaheen Shah-led Lions were unable to chase the target as their journey ended at 310 runs after the loss of eight wickets in 50 overs.
From the entire batting line-up of the Lions, only Rohail Nazir and Mohammad Taha were able to score significant runs as they managed individual innings of 62 off 70 and 40 off 49 deliveries respectively.
Other commendable scorers were Abdullah Shafique (27 off 42), Omair Yousuf (26 off 27) and Sharoon Siraj (25 off 18).
Towards the end of the innings, Khushdil Shah posted a 60 with his captain Shaheen scoring 33 runs but all went in vain.
Dolphins’ skipper, Saud Shakeel and Abbas Afridi dismissed two of the Lions, while Mir Hamza, Sufiyan Muqeem, Faheem Ashraf and Qasim Akram grabbed one wicket each.
Earlier, the Dolphins had won the toss and elected to bat first.
They were bundled out by Shaheen Afridi’s bowlers but managed to get to a 326-run total with the highest individual score being 75 runs off 81 balls from Umar Amin.
As the wickets kept toppling down for the Dolphins, they kept scoring runs with 52 off 50 balls from wicketkeeper-batter Muhammad Akhlaq and 47 off 41 from opener Mohammad Huraira.
Skipper Saud also added 23 on 23 deliveries and down the order, tail-ender Qasim Akram added 31 off 26 to the scoreboard.
Towards the end of the innings, things for the Shaheen-led team further got out of hand as all-rounder Faheem Ashraf entertained the spectators and viewers with his power-hitting, scoring 30 runs on 20 balls.
Lions’ Aamir Jamal took three wickets while skipper Shaheen and Ahmed Daniyal managed to grab two wickets each whereas Khushdil Shah and Sharoon Siraj took one scalp each.
It is to be noted that Shaheen Afridi’s XI have advanced to tournament’s playoff phase despite losing to the Dolphins.
Playing XI
Dophins: Sahibzada Farhan, Muhammad Hurraira, Muhammad Akhlaq (wk), Umar Amin, Saud Shakeel (c), Asif Ali, Qasim Akram, Faheem Ashraf, Abbas Afridi, Mir Hamza, and Sufiyan Muqeem
Lions: Abdullah Shafique, Sharoon Siraj, Omair Yousuf, Mohammad Taha, Irfan Khan, Khushdil Shah, Aamer Jamal, Rohail Nazir (wk), Mohammad Asghar, Shaheen Shah Afridi (c), Ahmed Daniyal
