Nazeer Hussain Gymkhana Vs Vanthali Memon A
16th Challengers Cup
A brilliant fixture and it lived up to its expectations, the teams came out inspired and were looking for a win and both gave their best but in the end, Nazeer Hussain Gymkhana was the team that held their nerve and clinched victory by the tiniest of margins.
The thriller started with Nazeer Hussain Gymkhana batting and after losing an early wicket they came back strongly and Farhan Asif and Farukh Rizvi stabilized the innings with their sensible partnership. Farukh Rizvi played a second fiddle role and scored 37 off 40 balls with 1 maximum and a boundary. His opening partner, Farhan Asif scored 51 off 34 and he was looking in blistering form as he smashed 3 massive sixes and 4 fours. Their work was carried forward by Hassan Qazi who scored 26 off 24 balls but after that no one was able to even get into double figures and bowlers came back strongly led by Naveed and Khurram who picked up 2 wickets each and gave away 18 and 24 runs respectively. Nazeer Hussain in the end managed to put up 158 in their 20 overs.
Vanthali restricted the opposition with their good bowling in later stages of the innings and they had the momentum going into the second innings. The start though was not an ideal one as they lost 3 early wickets. This was a real shock for them as three of their best batsmen were send back to the pavilion without much contribution. The game was slipping away from them but Naveed and Hamza had other plans, they constructed a much-needed partnership and scored over 70 runs together. Hamza scored 23 off 21 whereas Naveed scored 56 off 46. Their partnership brought back live in the dugout and they started believing again. Once they were dismissed Farrukh came in and played one of the fine innings of the match under immense pressure and scored 57 off just 32 balls with 2 sixes and 6 fours. The game was taken to the last over and Vanthali panicked and lost painfully by only a run. It was a great game but in the end, Nazeer Hussain Gymkhana came out victorious by only 1 run.