Sialkot Stallions lifts T20 title yet again for the 5th time
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Faisalabad v Sialkot, RBS Twenty20 Cup final, Karachi
Sialkot Stallions 110 for 5 (Naved 27, Razzaq 24) beat Faisalabad Wolves 109 for 9 (Hafeez 27, Razzaq 2-37, Rehman 2-17) by five wickets
Sialkot Stallions showed their domination as a champion's side in the local land, Stallions beat Faisalabad wolves by 5 wickets to grab their fifth consecutive RBS Twenty20 Cup.
30,000+ crowd simply showed that cricket is still alive in Pakistan whatever the conditions are, National Stadium Karachi was packed with fans, fans were on the roof as well because there was no place to sit, thousands of fans were outside the stadium trying to cash in the wonderful encounter. Even though their home side Karachi Dolphins was not in the final but crowd showed that they still love their cricket than anybody in the world.
Sialkot Stallions grab their 5th T20 title in a row
Final match was very much dominated by Sialkot bowlers who destroyed Faisalabad batting line after Faisalabad won the toss and elected to bat. Mohammad Asif strikes in his first over when he got the wicket of dangerous Asif Hussain, then in the next over Mohammad Salman became the victim of experienced Abdul Razzaq, on the total of 19 Ali Waqas got out on a beautiful ball from Abdul Razzaq and left his into the hands of inform Hafeez.
From the very 1st ball Mohammad Hafeez timed his shots beautifully; his form was clearly showing in his shots, in the 8th over Mohammad Hafeez hit 2 huge sixes to Abdul Razzaq and gives some thing to cheer to the big crowd but he was runout in the most disappointing fashion, striker punched the ball straight to Abdul Rahman and Rahman turn the ball to the non-
striker stumps very cleverly and Hafeez was well short of his crease.
That's how the wickets kept falling for Faisalabad and they never looked like to score a big one, Faisalabad score 109 in their 20 overs, simply was not enough to challenge Sialkot Stallions.
Imran Nazir and Mansoor Amjad starts the run chase for Sialkot and Imran Nazir started as he wanted to finish the game as quickly as possible, he start with a four and a huge six in 2 balls but like always his presence didn't stay for much long as he got out on the 3rd ball of the innings, he played straight into the hands of cover fielder.
Mansoor Amjad fell in the next over which gave a slight change to Faisalabad to get back into the match but Raza Naveed bamboozle the Faisalabad attack and his take to 55 in no time, Rana got out caught at mid-off trying to hit Saeed Ajmal for a six. After just 1 one on 56 Shoaib Malik also made his way back to the paviliond when he edge a ball to keeper on the bowling of Shahid Nazir.
Suddenly some hustle and bustle starts in the Faisalabad camps but it was Abdul Razzaq who took his team to the title with the solid hand of 24 and well supported by notout Shahid Yousuf (21), title was won in the 17th over when Shoaib Malik's younger brother Adeel Malik score the winning runs for Sialkot.
This Twenty20 tournament showed the world that Pakistan is still a cricketing nation and they love their cricket whatever the conditions are in the country, Pakistan nation is all set to welcome international cricket again.
