Lahore Whites becomes first team to seal National T20 finals berth

Pakistan’s National T20 Cup semi-final fixtures were initially scheduled to take place on Sunday (November 26). However, it had to be postponed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after violent clashes between religious protesters and law enforcement officials across the country. The first semi-final of the tournament was finally hosted earlier on Wednesday between Lahore Whites and Faisalabad Region.

In a rather equally fought contest Lahore outclassed Faisalabad by 10 runs in the first semi-final of the National Twenty20 Cup 2017-18 at Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi to become the first team to seal a spot for the trophy match.

Batting first Lahore Region Whites managed to put up a total of 142 runs for 7 on the scoreboard. Salman Butt made a well-paced 40, while the Akmal brothers made meaty contribution in the middle with Umar Akmal scoring 35 and Kamran Akmal adding 30. Their knocks were the highlight of the team’s batting display.

The Faisalabad bowlers did a neat job to restrict the opponents to an achievable target, Asad Ali picked 2 for 37, Saeed Ajmal 1 for 13, Yasir Shah 1 for 28 while Imran Khalid returned with figures of 1 for 30.

In reply, Faisalabad Region were 132 all out in 19.4 over, falling short of the target by just 10 runs to miss out on the finals berth. Sohaib Maqsood 39 and Imran Khalid 34 played well. For Lahore Region Whites, Wahab Riaz 2 for 15, Umaid Asif 2 for 30, Amir Yamin 1 for 15 and Bilal Asif 1 for 21 took wickets.

The protests resulted in a number of casualties

A policeman was martyred while at least 170 people injured, including several security officials in the mayhem with protesters after authorities commenced an operation to disperse the weeks-long sit-in at Faizabad interchange earlier today. Dozens of protesters were detained as they resisted the operation and pelted stones at policemen and military troops after the capital was virtually paralyzed for weeks due to the sit-in