Karachi Patriots played a friendly match against ALLIANCE SPORTS at Aga Khan Gymkhana Ground on Sunday 29th November 2015.
Patriots were without captain Adeel Abbasi and key players Sameer Ahmedani, Faraz Ahmed and Ghazanfar. Faisal Butt was assigned task of being stand in captain for the first time and Adnan Ghazi was selected as his deputy.
KP won the toss and decided to bat first and lost Ahmed Usama and Adnan Ghazi early. Two down and under pressure to resurrect a sinking ship, Tayyab R Balagamwala (54) and Amir Motiwala (66) developed a partnership of a 100 runs and ensured the Patriots ended up with a respectable total of 177 for 8 in 20 overs. For Alliance, Khurram Rangila, Jawed and Ehsan got 2 wickets each whereas Faizan got a wicket and a crucial run out.
With the match nicely balanced at half time, Alliance started off well but lost Khurrum(15) and Tariq Sheikhani(0) on consecutive deliveries from Ansar Anis Bhesania. Two good friends, Ali Mansoor Zaidi(33) and FamIdrees Durrani(25)came together at the fall of the second wicket and steadily rebuilt the innings. But once both were out courtesy Rizwan Merchant and Adnan Ghazi, it looked like a lost cause. Saad Ahmed however had other ideas and he batted superbly to switch the tide in favour of Alliance with some lofty hits all around the park and was assisted by Farrukh (22) and Ehsan (11). With 12 an over needed, Saad's hitting and some sloppy fielding by KP brought the game to the last over with only 10 needed. Faisal Butt the KP captain for the day stepped up to the plate and led from the front and conceded only 4 runs off the last over as Alliance ended at 172 for 6 and Patriots won a thrilling match by just 5 runs. Saad ended not out at 59 and was heart broken towards the end when Alliance fell just short of the line. For the Patriots, Faisal Butt got 3 wickets, Ansar got 2 and Rizwan Merchant bowled a miserly spell which included a wicket and adnan ghazi got a wicket as well.
Amir Motiwala for his superb 66 runs was given the man of the match but in all it was a superb team effort from almost all the senior players in the side that took the Patriots over the line.
