Suleman Textile Stallions and Benitoz Panthers faced each other in the knockout eliminator match of the MSL Season 2. The stakes were high as the winner was to qualify for the semi final against Rims Lions with the match being played at RLCA Gulberg cricket ground. Stallions batted first and lost both openers Fahad Jabbar Memon and Talha Ahmedani for 13 runs each and the subsequent batsmen got starts but could not score big as Ali Mehar knocked 26 runs and Dawood Dawson scored 19 runs. Captain Shahzad Suleman then played a brilliant knock of 37 runs at a strike rate of 128% to ensure his team ended at a low but competitive score of 139 for 7 in 20 overs. For Panthers, Umer Chawla took 2 wickets while Danish, Hamza, Madni and Asad got a wicket each.
In reply, Panthers lost opener Rameez for 7 runs but Ahmed Arshad with 32 and Hamza Qadir with 33 runs trotted along at a slow pace . The match was evenly poised when Benitoz needed 51 off 33 balls with 7 wickets in hand. What followed was a collapse of epic proportions as the Panthers batsmen could not handle the pressure as Idrees Amin took 5 quick wickets for just 5 runs and the chasers collapsed to 96 all out in a crunch situation. Other than Idrees, 3 wickets were taken by Waseem Ali and Muhammad Ali picked up a wicket.
Suleman Textile Stallions won by 43 runs.
Man of the match: Idrees Amin (Suleman Textile Stallions)
