6th National Disabled T-20 Cricket Championship 2018-19. (Part-1)
Omar Shaheen
Successful summer tour of England was the talk of the town until the Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association announced in November that it would host the sixth National Disabled T20 Cricket Championship. The PDCA decided to hold the championship in two phases, the first in Karachi and the second in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Experience playing the same event on wickets of different nature, cricketers from one region should also go and play on the wickets of other regions so that the players can perform their talents in both environments. This decision was very welcome and proved to be very good for the players and that is why during this event many young players emerged who went on to make a name for themselves in Pakistan Disabled Cricket Team.
The media was informed about the holding of this event in a wonderful press conference in Karachi in December 2018. The event started on January 1, 2019. The matches of the first phase of this championship were played in Karachi in which many excellent performances were witnessed. The weather in Karachi is very pleasant in the month of January. The days are not very hot while the nights are very cold so such a season is also called cricket season in Karachi. All the matches played here were held in a very good manner. The format of the event was arranged by dividing the teams from 16 regions across the country into four groups. Group A and B matches were scheduled in Karachi while Group C and D matches were scheduled in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Group matches were held at Rashid Latif Academy Cricket Ground and TMC Cricket Ground. At the end of which, Karachi made it to the semi-finals from Group A and Multan made it to the semi-finals from Group B. Hosts Karachi, Quetta, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, Quetta Bolan and Sargodha participated in the matches of this phase. A total of 13 matches were played here in which 18 half centuries were scored. From which the abilities of disabled batsmen can be well assessed. Along with Adnan Butt and Rehan Ghani of Faisalabad, M Shehzad of Bahawalpur scored two half centuries. Sargodha’s Ahsan Khalil was the top scorer of the first phase with 91 runs while he was also the top scorer with 163 runs in three matches. Adnan Butt of Faisalabad scored 159, Danish Ahmed of Karachi 147, Arif Richard of Karachi 146, Matool Qureshi of Multan 144 and Hamza Hamid of Hyderabad 135 runs.
Speaking of bowling, Majid Hussain of Multan was declared the top bowler with eight wickets in four matches. His best bowling was five wickets for 19 runs which was also the best bowling of the first phase of the championship. M Harris of Multan and Amir Ahmed of Karachi finished second and third with six wickets each . M Harris’s best bowling took three wickets for 8 runs while Amir Ahmed’s best bowling took three wickets for 26 runs. Multan’s Allah Dutta was fourth with five wickets while Sargodha’s Asad Ali, M Akram, Quetta Bolan’s Zafar Ali, Quetta’s Nizamuddin, Karachi’s Haroon Rashid, Noman Shabbir and Iqbal Hussain were among the four wicket takers. And Abdul Rehman of Hyderabad. Abdul Rehman was the second best bowler of the championship with four wickets for 25 runs. At the end of the group matches, the only semi-final of the Karachi stage was played. The semi-final saw a very interesting match but the host Karachi lost by five wickets. Karachi Disabled Cricket Team scored 151 runs for the loss of eight wickets while playing first. Rao Javed scored 60 off 50 balls, Mohammad Zeeshan 31 and Ahmad Raza 17 runs. Muhammad Haris (19) and Jahanzeb Towana (36) took two wickets each. In reply, the winning Multan team achieved the target on the third ball of the last over. Majid Hussain scored 57, Zaman Ali 23 and Jahanzeb Towana 22 runs. Karachi Muhammad Zeeshan gave a 33-run performance for three wickets, but he could not lead the team to victory. Majid Hussain was declared man of the match. (to be continued)