Champions One Day Cup: Usman Khan, Mohammad Hasnain provide Panthers debut win

Panthers and Dolphins clashed in the third game of Pakistan’s Champions One-Day Cup on September 14. Panthers won the toss and elected to bat first. After losing two early wickets, Umar Siddiq and Usman Khan shared 70 runs between them for the third wicket. Usman made perfect use of the 50-over format and notched up 111 off 110 balls.

The right-handed batter did so with the help of 11 boundaries and three maximums. The other notable contribution came at the end of Haider Ali and Shadab Khan as the duo scored 63 and 65 respectively. Thanks to Usman’s dominating knock, the Panthers posted a tough-to-crack target of 328 runs.

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A pace express called Mohammad Hasnain awaited Dolphins when they were out to chase the target. After Usama Mir and Shadab took care of the Dolphins' top order, Hasnain cut through their middle and lower order with a five-wicket bunch. The most crucial wicket was of Qasim Akram, who was batting cautiously and working out small partnerships along the way. He cleaned him up on 65 off 62 balls.

Expensive Hasnain does the job for Panthers

The right-arm pacer was on the expensive side, conceding 74 runs in his 10-over quota and his economy rate read 7.40. But the timely wickets did the job for Panthers and the Dolphins were bundled for 278 runs in 47 overs. With this win, Panthers opened their account in the points table after losing to Markhors by a whopping 160 runs in their first game.

Speaking of Markhors, they have an enviable net run-rate (NRR) of 3.2 and are perched atop the table with 14 points having played only one game. The Shaheen Afridi-led Lions are at the bottom of the table with one loss in as many games and will hope to counter-attack in the upcoming game.