Zia, Azam lead FATA's cruise past Peshawar

A 32-ball 50 from Awais Zia led FATA to a six-wicket win against Peshawar in their tournament opener in Rawalpindi. Chasing 165, Zia’s blitz helped FATA plunder 93 in the first 10 overs, but they still required captain Hammad Azam‘s 27-ball 38 to carry them over the line in a tense finish.

Openers Zia and Mukhtar Ahmed (22 off 12 balls) put FATA on course with a 56-run stand off just 24 balls. After Zia’s dismissal though, in the 11th over, Peshawar pulled the game back through left-arm spinners Zohaib Khan and Kashif Bhatti, who returned combined figures of 7-0-32-2.

Khushdil Shah struggled with a 29-ball 24, and his dismissal left FATA with 19 runs to win off 15 balls. Azam and Sohail Akhtar needed just eight of them to finish the game.

Musadiq Ahmed had earlier lifted Peshawar to 164 for 6 with his 27-ball 51, an innings that featured five fours and three sixes. Peshawar’s top order managed to hit at least a boundary in each over of the Powerplay, but they were reduced to 64 for 3 in the ninth over. Brisk middle-order contributions from Naved Yasin (30) and Mohammed Imran (18) along with Musadiq’s firepower helped them hit 100 runs in the final 11 overs of the innings.

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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