Northern make semis as rain curtails action.

Byline: Khalid H. Khan

KARACHI -- On a day that saw just one curtailed game taking place in the National T20 Cup in Faisalabad, Northern stormed into the semi-finals with a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Early morning rain and more of the same during the afternoon left the outfield at the Iqbal Stadium inundated, forcing the match officials to abandon the opening fixture of day six and leaving Central and Southern sharing points in the much-awaited battle of the Punjab.

However, when the conditions improved considerably enough, the start of match two was delayed by an hour with play being curtailed to 16-overs-a-side. As the situation demanded, Northern captain Imad Wasim had no hesitation in taking the fielding-first option upon winning the toss.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who are now out of reckoning for the knockout round, suffered a body blow as Fakhar Zaman (three off six balls) literally threw away his wicket as if he was more interested in giving fielding practice to the man standing within the 30-yard circle, rather sent the ball up and over to the fence.

Fakhar's early demise followed that of his fellow left-handed opening partner Israrullah (1) in that same second over. Adil Amin (3) followed them shortly afterwards to leave Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in tatters at 15-3.

The promising Khushdil Shah looked good in making 22 from 13 balls (three fours and one six) before the left-hander swung wildly against Pakistan leg-spinner Shadab Khan. But the experienced duo of Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed restored parity with a fine partnership of 52. Iftikhar made Sohail Tanvir pay heavily for waywardness with the former Pakistan left-armer conceding several sixes in an eventful over.

Iftikhar was finally dismissed by Sohail for a 20-ball 31 (three sixes and one four), held on the long-on boundary by Ali Imran. Rizwan, the successor to sacked Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed as the wicket-keeper/batsman, continued his excellent form with a second straight post-50 score. This time he slammed seven boundaries in making 52 from 35 balls.

Rising fast bowler Musa Khan - who had wrecked the innings upfront - grabbed four wickets for 38 runs in four overs in his first match of the tournament.

Umar Amin (39 off 28 balls, six boundaries) and Ali Imran (34 off 23, three sixes and one four) then made sure Northern did not lose initiative gained in the field by sharing a brilliant first-wicket partnership of 72 on either side of...