Rawalakot Hawks beat Mirpur Royals by four wickets with two balls to spare in the eliminator two of the KPL 2021 at Muzaffarabad Cricket Stadium on Monday.
Hawks will face Muzaffarabad Tigers in the final on Tuesday.
Shahid Afridi, skipper of Rawalakot Hawks, won the toss and elected to ball first on a batting paradise where Royals’ openers got off to a sensational start and scored 74 in the first seven overs. Mukhtar Ahmad played an ordinary innings of just 17 off 21 but his fellow opener, Sharjeel Khan, had a fabulous day as the left-hander smashed every bowler for runs and produced another 51 runs stand for second wicket on just 21 deliveries with skipper Shoaib Malik scoring just 15 off 12.
Sharjeel had such an outstanding stay that Royals reached 200 in the 17th over. Mohammad Akhlaq scored 29 off 21, while Khushdil Shah helped his side reach 236 by contributing with his 12 runs knock.
The star of the evening from Mirpur Royals obviously had been Sharjeel Khan who played a big innings of 141 off 63 deliveries on a big day, making sure Royals score some extra runs as well. He smashed 12 fours and as many sixes. Almost every Royals’ bowler leaked runs with an economy rate of over 11 but Zaman Khan, the right-arm fast bolwer, remained the star bowler of the day as he gave away just 18 runs in four overs while claiming Shoaib Malik and Sharjeel Khan’s wickets.
Ahmed Shehzad was injured during the fielding so Hawks were coming up with added pressure of chasing 237 in the absence of their premium cast opener.
Sameen Gul striked in his very first over when Umar Amin threw an easy catch to the wicket-keeper. Mohammad Imran had not been utilized brilliantly at the lower order so management promoted him at no.3 to go big in a high-scoring competition but the allrounder failed to get a good outing and he lost his wicket for just 13 off 11 to Ammad Butt who dismissed Bismillah Khan as well after just another delivery in the same over.
Coming in at no.4, the young Kashmiri sensation, Kashif Ali, had a day better than Sharjeel Khan even as he rescued his side in their all important game. Kashif was joined by Hussain Talat and both produced an unbelievable partnership, scoring 85 in just 6.3 overs. Hussain Talat got out for 51 off 22 that included seven fours and two sixes.
Danish Aziz got out for just six off five while Shahid Afridi failed to play a big innings. Asif Afridi also scored just seven runs but Kashif Ali alone went on to score more than 50 in the last four overs as Hawks chased 237 runs target in 19.4 overs.
Kashif played an unbeaten knock of 114 off 51 with nine fours and eight sixes. Ammad Butt and Sameen Gul got three and two wickets respectively but failed to stop the flow of runs at the back end that helped Hawks chase a record total in KPL 2021. Kashif Ali was given man-of-the-match award for his outstanding unbeaten 114.
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