Saim Ayub starred with a dazzling 156, before a top-order collapse saw Stallions fall short against Panthers in the Champions Cup yesterday (September 21), despite a late-innings assault from Zaman Khan.
The Saim Ayub show
Ayub's innings was the highlight in a top-order run-fest for the Panthers. He and Azan Awais put on 138 for the first wicket, taking the side over halfway through the innings without loss. After Awais was dismissed by Abrar Ahmed, Usman Khan took up the mantle, combining with Ayub to take the Panthers to 298-2 in the 43rd over of the innings with a quick-fire 75.
However, it was the captain Ayub who was the star of the show. Having largely left Usman to tee-off at the other end, he powered through the eighties and nineties with back-to-back boundaries off Abrar before hitting Jahandad Khan for another four to bring up his century off 92 balls. He and Usman then accelerated through the back end of the innings, scoring 44 runs off 23 balls after the 35th over. After Usman was dismissed by Zaman as the first of his four victims, Ayub continued to attack. He was finally dismissed in the 46th over for 156 off 130 balls, including seven sixes.
Panthers were not able to post the 350-plus score they had been threatening to before Ayub's dismissal, however. They lost four wickets in 12 balls between the 46th and 48th overs, and set Stallions 345 to win.
Zaman Khan raises hopes with the bat for Stallions
Stallions were quickly in trouble in the chase. They lost Mohammad Haris for 19 in the 4th over of the innings, before Shan Masood and Babar Azam both fell for single figures to leave the side 37-3 in the seventh over.
They were given hope, however, by Tayyab Tahir, who hit his sixth List A century to mount a recovery which saw the Stallions reach 231-4 with 10 overs remaining. The run-rate, though, was near unmanageable by that point, and Arafat Minhas dismissed Tahir caught and bowled off the second ball of the 41st. By the time Adil Amin was out in the following over, the required run rate had climbed well above 12.
However, Zaman had other ideas. Having come for the second ball of the 46th when the Stallions needed 80 runs off 29 balls, he smashed six sixes in the following four overs, including 24 off Musabir's 38th, to leave them an unliekly but not impossible 22 runs needed off the last over.
The fun came to an end when he was dismissed by Amad Butt, who also dismissed Mohammad Ali first ball to bowl Stallions out, and win the game for Panthers by 20 runs.
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
