Aided by Israrullah’s returning to form with a blazing 82, Peshawar secured a seven-wicket triumph in 18 overs to top Group ‘B’ by virtue of their head-to-head result against Sarfraz Ahmed’s side that lacked the services of Shahid Afridi on the last day of league-round fixtures.
If Karachi Blues, who had gone into this game with a splendid streak of eight victories including four of them at the qualifying stage, had defeated Peshawar the latter would have been knocked out of the tournament with Abbottabad going through to the semis on basis of their six-wicket win against Zohaib Khan’s team on Saturday.
As it stands now, Abbottabad were obviously rueing their lacklustre effort against Faisalabad on Friday when a wayward Ahmed Jamal over cost them that match. Younis Khan’s men had to settle for a consolation six-wicket victory against Islamabad early on Sunday at the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad to finish third in the final pool standings.
In Monday’s semi-finals at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, Karachi Blues — hoping to have Afridi back after personal commitments forced the Pakistan T20 captain to miss the Peshawar clash — will take on Group ‘A’ winners Multan with Peshawar bracing for a daunting task against Shoaib Malik’s Sialkot in the other one later in the evening.
Sialkot, the Super Eight title-winners, earned their expected berth in the last-four from Group ‘A’ with two contrasting wins in less than 24 hours. In Saturday’s last match they overcame fellow contenders Rawalpindi by 19 runs at the Pindi Cricket Stadium to leave Sohail Tanvir’s side playing just for pride in the last league-round tie against Hyderabad under lights on Sunday.
Sialkot showed their true mettle in this format at the Diamond Club Ground on Sunday afternoon when they mercilessly butchered Bahawalpur by 10 wickets.
For more detail Imran’s hat-trick inspires Peshawar into T20 Cup semis
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