HBL Asset Management went against NBP Lions on 23rd October at Asghar Ali Shah Ground.
Nauman Ur Rehman and Ehtisham Junaidi opened the innings for HBL. Nauman gave a good start to the team, as he scored 37 runs at a strike rate of 160.87. However, Ehtisham lost his wicket to Shuja Uddin on a duck. Asim Jabbar, the one-down batter, scored 14 runs, while Abdur Rehman added 18 runs to the score. The batters displayed a mediocre effort with Zohaib emerging as the highest scorer. Zohaib scored 26 runs only off 18 balls, hitting 4 boundaries. Azhar Khan led the bowling attack and bagged 4 wickets at an economy rate of 2.50 in 4 overs. In addition to this, Shahid Mushtaq and Farrukh Shahid took 2 wickets each. Hence, restricting HBL to a score of 134 runs.
Sohail Zaman and Farrukh Shahid opened the innings for NBP Lions, scoring 9 and 29 runs respectively. The bowlers collectively dominated, such that the batters were unable to stay on the crease for long. Syed Umair Ali and Kashif Butt pushed their team closer to the target, as they scored 26 and 22 runs respectively. However, this was not enough. Safdar Khan, Abdur Rehman Sr, Umair Shareef and Babar Syed knocked down 2 wickets each.
As a result of the ferocious bowling from HBL, Lions were restricted to a score of 119. Hence, HBL Asset Management won the match in the 19th over by 15 runs.
