Match 17, Northern v Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Northern 181/7 in 20 overs (Nawaz 51; Shaheen 2-30) beat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 167/8 in 20 overs (Iftikhar 58; Haris 3-31) by 14 runs. Player of the Match: Mohammad Nawaz.
Mohammad Nawaz starred with both bat (51 in 34 balls) and ball (2-26) to help Northern register a 14-run win against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Match 17 of the National T20 Cup 2021 in Rawalpindi. Riding on his all-round performance, Northern piled up 181/7 after they were put in, and restricted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to 167/8.
Nawaz was ably assisted by Shadab Khan (46 in 27) and Asif Ali (21 in 11) after they slipped to 55/4. Shaheen Shah Afridi returned 2-30 and Asif Afridi 1-22. Coming to the chase, Iftikhar Ahmed scored 34-ball 58, but received little support. By returning 3-31, Haris Rauf did the most damage for Northern.
Match 18, Southern Punjab v Central Punjab
Southern Punjab 119 in 18.4 overs (Azam 45; Hasan 4-24) lost to Central Punjab 123/3 in 17.2 overs (Babar 59*; Hassan 2-15) by 7 wickets with 16 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Faheem Ashraf.
Central Punjab defeated Southern Punjab by seven wickets in Match 18 of the competition. They bundled out Southern Punjab for 119, and reached the target with 16 balls to spare.
Agha Salman (40) and Azam Khan (45) were the only Southern Punjab batters to score in excess of 10 as they were skittled out for a paltry total. Faheem Ashraf returned excellent figures of 4-0-14-3, while Hasan Ali ended with 4-24. Babar Azam then remained till the end, and struck five fours and two sixes in an unbeaten 49-ball 59 to take Central Punjab past the finishing line in the 18th over.