PESHAWAR: Sadia Batool spun Abbottabad to six runs victory against Mansehra in the final after taking four wickets for just 7 runs in her excellent bowling in the final of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U21 Women Games Cricket event played at Yasir Shah Cricket Academy ground, Shah Mansoor, District Swabi on Friday.
Sadia, the right-arm off-spinner, claimed four wickets, two in her very first over and one on first ball with two more in second and third over to restrict Mansehra to a meagre runs chasing Abbottabad 73 runs winning target.
Abbottabad’s skipper Pakistan team player Ayesha Khan won the toss and decided to bat first by setting up 72 runs target for the loss of four wickets in the allotted 10 overs. Ayesha, who scored 96 runs in the semi-final against Peshawar, failed to click and was bowled out for a duck.
This was Qurat Ul Ain who played an elegant knock of not out 21 runs off 12 balls with three boundaries and Irsa made another cracking 21 not out of 20 balls with two boundaries guided the team. Sadia was the other top scorer with 15 runs off 13 balls with two boundaries. None of the other bats women score any runs. Thus Abbottabad set a 73 runs winner target for the loss of six wickets after playing 10 overs. For Mansehra right-arm medium fast bowler Nazia took four wickets for 21 runs in her four overs spell and Ansa took two wickets.
In reply, Mansehra failed to chase the target despite an excellent and cracking 22 runs knock off 21 balls with five boundaries by Aiman. Ansa scored 17 runs off 16 balls with one boundary. Thus Mansehra made 64 runs in the allotted 10 overs. Sadia claimed four wickets for seven runs and played a key role in restricting Mansehra to 64 runs. Ayesha took one wicket. Thus Abbottabad won the match by 8 runs. Osama and Rehmat Ullah supervised the match.
At the end, the chief guest Director Female Games Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Miss Rashida Ghaznavi gave away trophies, medals and cash prizes as Rs. 55000 to runners-up and Rs. 110, 000 to winners. Regional Sports Officer Swabi Muhammad Tariq Khan, Organizing Secretary Rahim Bibi, coaches Saira and Shaqiya and former international cricketer Salma Faiz were also present.