KARACHI: The Kashmir Premier League (KPL) organisers on Wednesday announced a seventh franchise named Jammu Janbaz will be part of the second season next year a day after Rawalkot Hawks clinched the inaugural edition of the new Twenty20 League in Muzaffarabad with a close win over Muzaffarabad Tigers.

       The announcement by KPL president Arif Malik came following the grand success of the tournament in which six outfits — Hawks, Tigers, Mirpur Royals, Overseas Warriors, Bagh Stallions and Kotli Lions — competed at the Muzaffarabad Cricket Stadium.

       Arif also said that a T20 event for the youth of Kashmir is being planned in the next couple of months while adding an international standard cricket academy will be established in the region in collaboration with the Shahid Afridi Foundation.

       Meanwhile, the final of the first edition went down to the wire on Tuesday as the Hawks successfully defended their score f 169-7 by limiting the Tigers to 161-9 by grabbing four wickets at the death, including three at the backend without conceding a run.

       The stars with the ball were Asif Afridi and Hussain Talat who equally shared six wickets between them to derail Tigers’ chase after Mohammad Hafeez had elected to bowl first at the toss.

       The onus of playing the pivotal role with the bat once again fell to Kashmir Ali, who followed up his dazzling 114 against Mirpur Royals in Monday’s eliminator 2 clash by contributing a blazing 54 after Bismillah Khan (30 off 19 balls, four fours and one six) and Umar Amin (run-a-ball 23) shared an opening partnership of 53.

       Kashif struck five fours and three sixes during his 29-ball knock while Sahibzada Farhan hit up an invaluable 28 off 20 deliveries.

       Hafeez and leg-spinner Usama Mir bagged two wickets.

       The Tigers’ chase began bright through Zeeshan Ashraf’s 26-ball innings of 46 (four sixes and as many fours) but the Hawks continued to make inroads regularly and never letting the opposition settling down. Zeeshan was later adjudged best batsman of the competition while other individual awards went to Bismillah Khan (best wicket-keeper), Mohammad Wasim (bowler) with local star Salman Irshad was declared best Kashmiri player after the pacer grabbed 16 wickets.

       Asif, named player-of-the-match as well as the tournament’s best bowler, snared 3-21 in for overs while player-of-the-tournament Hussain returned brilliant figures of 3-18 in his four-over quota.

       Captain Shahid Afridi was still not 100 percent fit to bat but showed his prowess with the ball by picking up 2-32 with his whippy leg-spinners. He later received the winners’ purse of Rs10 million while the Tigers skipper Hafeez collected Rs5 million.

       Scoreboard

       RAWALAKOT HAWKS:

       Bismillah Khan c Sohail Akhtar b Usama 30

       Umar Amin lbw b Hafeez 23

       Sahibzada Farhan b Arshad 28

       Hussain Talat c Anwar b Hafeez 5

       Kashif Ali b Wasim 54

       Danish Aziz b Usama 4

       M. Imran Randhawa not out 17

       Asif Afridi run out 6

       Mohammad Irfan Jr not out 1

       EXTRAS (B-1) 1

       TOTAL (for seven wkts, 20 overs) 169

       FALL OF WKTS: 1-53, 2-53, 3-97,3-61, 4-97, 5-110, 6-157, 7-168.

       DID NOT BAT: Shahid Afridi, Zaman Khan.

       BOWLING: Mohammad Hafeez 3-0-26-2; Sohail Tanvir 3-0-32-0; Mohammad Wasim 4-0-36-1; Arshad Iqbal 4-0-27-1; Usama Mir 4-0-25-2; Inzamam-ul-Haq 2-0-22-0.

       MUZAFFARABAD TIGERS:

       Zeeshan Ashraf b Shahid 46

       Mohammad Hafeez c Farhan b Asif 25

       Sohaib Maqsood b Shahid 15

       Sohail Akhtar b Hussain 2

       Sohail Tanvir c Farhan b Hussain 21

       Anwar Ali c Imran b Hussain 7

       Mohammad Wasim run out 22

       Inzamam-ul-Haq b Asif 12

       Usama Mir st Bismillah b Asif 0

       Arshad Iqbal not out 0

       Usman Arshad not out 0

       EXTRAS (LB-6, W-4, NB-1) 11

       TOTAL (for nine wkts, 20 overs) 161

       FALL OF WKTS: 1-54, 2-88, 3-95, 4-97, 5-122, 6-142, 7-161, 8-161, 9-161.

       BOWLING: Zaman Khan 3-0-37-0 (1w); Mohammad Imran Randhawa 1-0-6-0 (2w); Mohammad Irfan Jr 4-0-41-0 (1nb); Asif Afridi 4-0-21-3; Shahid Afridi 4-0-32-2; Hussain Talat 4-0-18-3 (1w).

       RESULT: Rawalakot Hawks won by seven runs.

       UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza and Aleem Dar.

       TV UMPIRE: Asif Yaqoob.

       MATCH REFEREE: Ali Naqvi.

       PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Asif Afridi.

       PLAYER-OF-THE-TOURNAMENT: Hussain Talat.

       Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2021