Star cricketer and opening pair Khorana Sajjad and Sana Urooj guided Karachi to 45 runs victory in the opening match of the All-Pakistan Mrs. Malik Saad Invitational Women Cricket Cup, which got under way here at Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Industries, Abdul Karim Khan was the chief guest on this occasion. Before the start of match the players of Karachi, Mardan, Peshawar Green and Peshawar White, the four participating teams, were introduced to the chief guest.
Organising Secretary Amjad Aziz Malik, Karachi Manager Ambar, Ms. Raham Bibi, Miss Najma Qazi and Ms. Gul Nar, officials, and large number of women spectators were also present.
Karachi skipper Ramin Shamim won the toss and elected to bat first. The two star opening pair Khorana Sajjad and Sana Urooj provided a good opening wicket stand of 81 runs off 56 balls with Sana Urooj hammered a cracking 49 runs off 34 balls with nine boundaries and Khorana made another 29 runs with four boundaries of 21 balls.
After the opening wicket stand of 81 runs, only medium pacer Salmana scored 13 runs with three boundaries and none of the other batter could cross the double figures. For Peshawar Sana Liaqat took four wickets for 24 runs in her 3.5 overs spell while promising right arm spinner Hira claimed three wickets for 9 runs only in her four overs spell and Afsheen got one wicket for 21 runs while three batter were run-out. Thus Karachi bowled out for 124 runs all out after playing 19.5 overs.
In reply, for Peshawar only Aysha, the no. 3 batter scored unbeaten 40 runs with four boundaries and one six, and Sana scored 14 runs off 33 balls were the key contributors, none of the other batter could cross the double figures. Thus Peshawar scored 79 runs after playing 20 overs. For Karachi, Rida, Shabnam and Salmana took one wicket each. The match was supervised by Hajra Sarwar and Sohail Zaman. It is for the first time in the history of KP that Peshawar is hosting All-Pakistan Women Cricket Tournament.