Karachi Patriots and OGS played a friendly match at Moin Khan Cricket Stadium. Patriots were without captain Ghazanfar Richie and Adeel Abbasi so Tayyab R Balagamwala was the stand in captain for the match. Patriots batted first and on a difficult pitch struggled from the start as OGS bowlers maintained a good line and length. Ahmed Usama was out after scoring 11, Faisal Butt scored 2 runs and Afzal Ilyas was dismissed for 7 runs. Opener Adnan Salim was also out after hitting two sixes having scored 18 runs while Nadir departed after scoring 3 runs and patriots were struggling at 43 for 5 wickets. Tayyab R Balagamwala and Usman Yunus Ghani had a 29 run partnership to stabilize the innings before Tayyab was out for 14 runs. Usman Yunus Ghani then showed his typical aggressive skills as he hit 3 sixes and 3 boundaries and was unlucky not to get a half century as he was out for 49 runs and Patriots ended at 123 for 9 in 20 overs. For OGS, Abdullah got 3 wickets while captain Tariq Aijaz took 2 wickets and brothers Shehryar Malik and Muhammad Mustafa Malik picked up 2 wickets each.
In reply, Asad Bashir debuting for Patriots in his first match pulled off a first ball wicket Intikhab Alam style as he got Imran Shah lbw first ball while Faisal Butt got rid of Khan for 2 runs at the other end. Shehryar Qadir stuck around for a sensible 20 runs while Khawaja Obaid led the chase with 25 runs but struggled against some good quality bowling and faced 37 balls as the pitch became more difficult as the innings progressed. In the middle stage, Afzal Ilyas came to the forefront and with a low score to defend, he destroyed the OGS batting line up with 4 quick wickets of Umair (6), Zahid(0),Khawaja Obaid and Muhammad Mustafa Malik (3). Murtaza Salim got the crucial wicket of reliable batsman Muhammad Arshid who was out for 6 runs while Tayyab R Balagamwala cleaned up the tail with two wickets as OGS were all out for 86 runs.
A good contest on a difficult pitch and Patriots won their opening match of the new season by 37 runs
Man of the match was shared between Usman Yunus Ghani and Afzal Ilyas of Karachi patriots.
