Watch: Pakistan veteran Shoaib Malik opened his shoulders to spectacular effect in the National T20 Cup, to lead his side, Central Punjab, to a comprehensive win.

If Babar doesn’t get you, Malik will. When the CP skipper was beaten for pace and trapped leg-before by Mohammad Hasnain for 12, Sindh had the upper hand in the game. And for a time there was no let-up, striking at regular intervals to slow down CP’s scoring rate.

However, Shoaib Malik changed the complexion of the contest.

Malik got off to a cautious start, but gradually went after the Sindh bowlers, starting his offence with a big hit over Abrar Ahmed, which sailed over deep extra cover. CP got a move on but regular wickets meant that they were 105-6 after 15 overs. The next over by Hasnain went largely in Sindh’s favour but Malik hit a six off the last ball over deep midwicket.

That shot brought him to a score of 33 off 28 balls, and Malik was switched on after that. He collected 17 off the next to overs, to reach his fifty.

Watch how Shoaib Malik reached his fifty here

However, it was in the 19th over that Malik changed the equation in favor of CP, taking apart Hasnain, a bowler capable of bowling at speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour. He was unable to exploit the first delivery, a length ball, but was ruthless thereafter.

He carved a Hasnain delivery on his legs towards the deep square-leg boundary. The next ball, a short-pitched delivery, was deposited beyond the boundary for a six. On both these occasions, fielders were present on the boundary but couldn’t do anything about Malik’s hitting.

The fourth was a juicy full-toss which the 39-year-old hit to cow corner. With things going awry for Hasnain, he tried to bowl the next delivery towards the off-side. However, Malik walked across the off-stump and smartly placed it towards the square-leg boundary. The fielder was unable to cut the ball off here as well.

The bowler didn’t do much wrong off the next delivery, but Malik was ready, and played a shot straight down the ground, to make it 22 off the over.

Due to Malik’s hitting, CP reached a total of 168-8. They won the game by 12 runs.

With reports in the Pakistan media suggesting consideration is being given to elevating Malik to Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad, he couldn’t have timed his assault any better.

You can watch his carnage against Mohammad Hasnain here:

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