Amad helps Balochistan set up final against Northern.

Byline: Khalid H. Khan

KARACHI -- On a day of dramatics, Amad Butt slammed a last-ball six to help Balochistan oust Southern Punjab by three wicket to qualify for the National T20 Cup final on Wednesday just hours after Haris Rauf grabbed a sensational last-over hat-trick as Northern edged past Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by three runs at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.

While Northern will also vie for the Second XI crown at Karachi's National Stadium, Southern Punjab were left heartbroken in the First XI clash as all-rounder Amad made light work of the required 18 runs from the last over by striking boundaries from two legitimate deliveries from seamer Umaid Asif, whose second ball was a wide. The third was hit straight back to the bowler before Amad bludgeoned Umaid over wide long-off for six.

The fifth ball saw Umar Gul sacrificing his wicket as Amad called him through for a non-existent second run. That left Balochistan needing two from one ball. But Amad was equal to the task as he swiveled around to pull over the square leg boundary to finish on 29 off 14 balls (three fours and two sixes) as Balochistan reached 178-7 after Southern Punjab had posted 173-5.

Earlier in the day, Haris engineered a sensational turnaround for Northern, who restricted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to 145-8 after totalling 148-9. Bowling the last over of what turned out to be an extraordinary first semi-final with Khyber PakhtunAkhwa needing eight runs, the strapping right-armer from Rawalpindi, grabbed a hat-trick.

Haris dismissed the well-set Iftikhar Ahmed with the first ball caught by Asif Ali for a 45-ball 53 (six boundaries). The next delivery saw Zohaib Khan run off a wide before Haris removed Musadiq Ahmed (0) and Zohaib (5) off successive deliveries. After a dot ball, Mohammad Mohsin (1) was run out before Usman Khan Shinwari only managed a single from the last one.

Haris earned the man-of-the-match award ahead of Shinwari who had been the star performer in the first half with a magnificent spell that fetched the Pakistan left-armer five wickets including three in the final over of the Northern innings for only 13 runs.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa controlled the game brilliantly after their skipper Mohammad Rizwan opted to field first at the toss. His Northern counterpart Imad Wasim reckoned a total of 160 would have be sufficient given the state of the pitch.

Northern suffered early hiccups when young Ali Imran hero of victory against Balochistan on Tuesday night edged...