Abahani on top beating Mohammedan PCL Twenty20 tournamentPort City Cricket League (PCL)- News- 2009-7

Abahani on top beating Mohammedan PCL Twenty20 tournament

Abahani came out on top in the local derby, beating Mohammedan Sporting Club by 21 runs in the second match of the Habib Group PCL Twenty20 tournament at the MA Aziz Stadium here yesterday. Though Abahani reached the semifinals stage before the match and Mohammedan are already out of the tournament, the match created huge anticipation among the players and the viewers as well.

Batting first, Abahani reached 153 for eight in 20 overs before restricting Mohammedan for 132 for nine. The most expensive player of the tournament and local hero Tamim Iqbal went back to the pavilion after making just 10 runs but Abahani’s Sri Lankan recruit Chamara Silva led the team to seal the win with his 63 runs off 50 balls featuring six boundaries and a six.

Two-down batsman Silva stayed at the crease till the last over to push the score past the 150-mark. In the process of going for their runs, Abahani lost five wickets in the last seven balls.

National discard Hannan Sarker also hit a rapid 26-ball 36 that had a couple of sixes and three boundaries.

Chasing 154 runs for a face-saving victory, Mohammedans lost the first three wickets for just 18 runs in 4.4 overs.

That slimmed the hopes of Mohammedan but they recovered to 84 for four in 12.3 overs with a solid Qaisar Abbas hitting 41 off 38 balls that had four boundaries and a six.

Both Qaiser and Ishtiaq added 56 for the fourth wicket with the latter hitting 36 off 29 balls.

Nayyer Abbas also contributed 22 runs but finally his team could reach only 130 runs.

But it was Abahani’s Sri Lankan recruit Frank Karunaratne who stole the limelight with two catches, one of which was simply amazing. Karunaratne ran from long-off and dove brilliantly near the boundary to get rid of Sanjamul Islam in the final over.

BRIEF SCORES
ABAHANI: 153 for 8 in 20 overs (Silva 63, Hannan 36, Karunaratne 19, Tamim 10; Lal 2-18, Tareq 2-18, Nayyer 1-24).
MOHAMMEDAN: 132 for 9 in 20 overs (Qaiser 41, Ishtiaq 36, Nayyer 22, Rasel 10; Talha 3-21, Karunaratne 3-30, Rasel 2-19, Rabiul 1-22).
Result: Abahani won by 21 runs.
Man-of-the-match: Frank Karunaratne.