Salman, Shoaib, Afridi and Rao Iftikhar shine at NSK: Twenty20 practice games

KARACHI, July 27: Opener Salman Butt smashed a whirlwind unbeaten century to steer his team to an exciting last ball victory over Shoaib Malik XI in a practice Twenty20 match at National Stadium on Friday.

In the second game played during the afternoon, opener Imran Nazir (58 not out) and Mohammad Hafeez (67 not out) gave Shoaib Malik XI an emphatic nine-wicket win over Salman Butt XI after pacer Rao Iftikhar (5 for 28) had ripped through the losing side.

In the first practice game, left-handed Salman Butt brought-up his team's win in style by flicking Rao Iftikhar to fine-leg boundary on the last ball after 16 runs were needed in the final over.

The talented Lahore opener slammed as many as 18 boundaries and a flurry of sixes in his 74-ball knock of 117 while Shahid Yousuf blasted two boundaries and a six in his 33 not out in a brisk fifth-wicket stand.

Earlier, skipper Shoaib Malik led his team to 184 for six in their 20 overs while batting first. Shoaib scored 71 off just 45 deliveries with five boundaries and four sixes while Shahid Afridi blasted five boundaries and four sixes in a 40-ball knock of 67.

Malik-Afridi stand yielded 134 runs for the fourth wicket after fast bowler Muhammad Sami removed Imran Nazir (0), Muhammad Hafeez (8) and Muhammad Yousuf (3) in a fiery opening spell.

In the second match, Shoaib Malik XI turned the tables on Salman Butt XI to thrash it by nine wickets with Rao Iftikhar snapping-up five wickets for 28 runs in four hostile overs.

Salman Butt XI, batting first, were restricted to 143-8 in 20 overs.

Fawwad Alam made an unbeaten 36 in as many balls. Shoaib Malik XI in reply raced to victory in the 15th over with Imran Nazir compensating for his morning game duck with a blistering 58 off 31-ball with the help of 11 boundaries.

Stylish Hafeez finished with an unbeaten 67 laced with eight hits to the ropes and two over it.

Summarised scores:

Salman Butt XI beat Shoaib Malik XI:

Shoaib Malik XI 184-6 in 20 overs (Shoaib Malik 71, Shahid Afridi 67, Muhammad Sami 3-23, Umer Gul 2-18) Salman Butt XI 187-4 in 20 overs (Salman Butt 117, Shahid Yousuf 33 not out, Shahid Afridi 2-35).

Shoaib Malik XI beat Salman Butt XI by 9 wickets.

Salman Butt XI 143-8 in 20 overs (Fawwad Alam 36 not out, Salman Butt 34, Yasir Hameed 21, Naveed Latif 18, Khalid Latif 13, Rao Iftikhar 5-28); Shoaib Malik XI 144-1 in 14.3 overs (Muhammad Hafeez 67 not out, Imran Nazir 58, Misbah-ul-Haq 12 not out).—Agencies

nice

excellent

really good effort by everyone apart from Mohammed Yousuf

his chances are looking very thin

good to see Malik leading from the front

Hmmm nice so our batsmen are getting their jobs well done which was a worry for the manager

Hopefully 20/20 will encourage Salman to play his shots more freely in the other versions of cricket too.

Wow! Sallu a 74-ball century! Never expected that! Maybe he isn't a bad choice as our opener in Twenty20s

Good to see Sami's doing well:

5 fer for Rao ... good stuff.

Isnt he a good enough ODI player or you reckon he is too slow for that format?

I hope that doesn't include test cricket.

He was when he started out but in his last few stints he's been far too cautious and slow

Hmmm probably short of confidence?

That's his role; to bat through the innings. When you have guys like Nazir at the top of the order and Afridi, Akmal and Razzaq at the bottom, you need a top-order batsman to bat through the innings. Salman should just play at his own pace and not try to do anything out of the ordinary.

May be you are right but even then if you are an opening batsman you have to take some sort of advantage of those powerplays, right?

salman has never been a slow batsman. dont know what you guys are going on about.

Good to see players finding form.. I've always said we have a very good Twenty20 team, lets see how well we do in the world cup. Hopefully, there won't be too much pressure on the boys and they can play their cricket freely and then we have a good chance.

Soon as Imran Nazir scores game is over in 14 overs. I hope he keeps on doing in 2020 world cup as well

Ooo great! Absolutely great! Nazir, Salman, Shoaib M., Hafeez, and Afridi; all on song! Yay!

Though there has been absolutely no news of Asif, ever.

Just a reminder that these are pakistani pitches.
The last 20/20 we played in South Africa shoul not be forgotten.

Good to see pakistans batsmen building confidence by scoring runs.

Lets hope thats transformed to the games that really matter later in year!

Woah, great news.

Very heartening to see Mohammad Sami take 3 wickets in the first game, including the two best 20/20 openers in Pakistan and amongst the best in the world.

Afridi just warming up with a 67 off 40 ball innings

Asif has a minor injury so he didnt take part according to Geo TV.

Whats wrong with Afridi, thats a poor strike rate by his standards!

Well I was also going to voice my disappointment at that atrocious strike rate. Not even at 200, and its 20/20!! I am expecting it to be at least 300 in most of the practice matches.

And only 4 SIXES! Quite a patient knock.

Extremely patient. One can only have pity for the bowlers in the remaining games, since 4 sixes in an innings is considered just a nice, relaxed warm up for The Beast

That's what Nazir is there for. Salman's job would be to rotate the strike, generally feeding Nazir, and putting the bad ball away when the opportunity arises. He shouldn't feel the need to play anything except his natural game, unless of course, we're chasing something like 350 odd when more risks would be required.

Salman, would be needing to rotate the strike mostly. But we can't have him blocking the ball or letting it go when he's unsure. He has to realize that he isn't a prized wicket, and will need to hit out. He can get out if he is going at an SR of 100 after 20 balls. Forget can, he SHOULD!