Salman continues to shine as Tigers overwhelm Panthers in 20-20

Salman Butt continues to shine as Tigers overwhelm Panthers



By our correspondent

KARACHI: In-form opener Salman Butt and Misbah-ul-Haq hit sparkling fifties to lead Pakistan Tigers to a convincing 40-run win over Pakistan Panthers in a practice T20 game here at the National Stadium on Thursday.

Butt (62) and Misbah (59) helped the Tigers accumulate an imposing 204-5 in 20 overs and it later turned out that the target was too big for Panthers, who had to largely rely on the services of second string batsmen.

Naved Latif (62) and Faisal Iqbal (45) did give the Panthers some hope though their cause got fatal blows early in the innings when fast bowler Mohammad Sami’s fiery new ball spell left them gasping for air at 19-4. In the end, the Panthers finished their 20 overs, 41 short of the victory target.

The Tigers opted to bat first after winning the toss. They lost opener Mohammad Hafeez (10) early while Yasir Hameed (8) also fell cheaply. However, Butt and Misbah were involved in a 72-run partnership for the third wicket.

Butt’s 62 came off 40 balls and included eight fours and a six. Misbah hit six fours and a six in his 40-ball 59. Shoaib Malik chipped in with an unbeaten 49 that came off 30 balls. Sohail Tanvir took 3-47.

Sami, the most impressive of the pacers in the practice games, sent back Khurram Manzoor (0) and Imran Farhat (1) early and the Panthers were never really able to bat themselves in the match. Sami finished with 2-20 in his four overs.

The Pakistan team probables will have physical training sessions today after which they would play back-to-back matches on Saturday and Sunday under floodlights at the National Stadium. The camp will conclude on August 6 following a final physical training session. Pakistan will later announce their final 15-man squad for the inaugural T20 World Cup to be held in South Africa next month.

Scores: Pakistan Tigers 204-5 in 20 overs (Salman Butt 62, Mohammad Hafeez 10, Yasir Hameed 8, Misbah-ul-Haq 59, Shoaib Malik 49*; Mohammad Asif 4-0-41-0, Rao Iftikhar 4-0-43-1, Sohail Tanvir 4-0-36-0, Abdul Rehman 4-0-33-0).

Pakistan Panthers 164-7 in 20 overs (Imran Farhat 1, Naved Latif 62*, Faisal Iqbal 45, Sohail Tanvir 30; Mohammad Sami 4-1-20-2, Mohammad Hafeez 4-0-30-2, Najaf Shah 40-0-26-1, Fawad Alam 4-0-31-0, Salman Butt 4-0-54-2).



Will like to know what salmast basher says now? is that enough for you guys to have salman in the paksitan team? is he playing too slow for your liking?

Sami and Shoaib should be certain, while Asif, Gul and Rao should compete for the final slot.

Good to see M Sami doing well..
This is what i suggest

Start with Asif and Shoaib, take Shoaib off after 2 overs and bring M Sami from that end. Asif should be allowed to bowl his allocated overs in the 1st spell then when he is done they can bring Afridi in and from M Sami's end they can bring in M Hafeez...and if any bowler doesn't do too well then have Alam and Malik bowl a few overs.

Impressive figures

And not one maiden in that too!

Asif once again thrashed 9 overs in the past two games and going for 98 runs! This is not what we want from our strike bowler

well then since Asif is struggling, even though we have seen how good he can be for Pakistan and is a key member of the side .... let us also drop him for the 20 20 tournament as we are going to do with Razzaq ... i hope you are reading this PCB !!!!!

Mohammad Asif continues to be carted around.

Exceptional effort from Sami, considering the heat and the flat pitches that they are playing on in these practice games.

Mohammad Asif's miserable run with the ball continues in the 20/20 games

It may well be a good idea to protect Asif from slaughter in this joke format. We need experienced horses for courses and that really requires likes of Arafat, Alam, Rana Naved... more than any other game this format is made for bits and pieces sloggers not beautiful exponents of the Test match format althought players who can do well in both formats should truly be recognised as being exceptional cricketers.

Brilliant effort from Sami again! Hopefully Asif will be left out as we don't want him to lose more confidence. Salman looks good, but he isn't playing exceptionally quickly is he? Or am I just beast hungry?

62 from 40 ball, what else you want??? We can't have 11 afridis's in our team and if we dont, we will not be able to win too many matches

most bowlers went for 8+ runs but not Najaf Shah 40-0-26-1

Any people turning up to watch these games or is it being shown on tv in pak?

Cricket is so popular in Pak, but why is domestic cricket so rubbish!

Sami !!

i still don't understand why Salman and Shoaib are on the same team...