Middle order Mehtab struck elegant 46 runs off 25 balls not out with five boundaries and two towering sixes guided Charsadda to a six wickets victory against strong Mardan team in the ongoing PCB Women Twenty20 Cricket League being played here at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Cricket ground on Sunday.
Mehtab and Hina had a 67 runs partnership for the fourth wicket when the top order of Charsadda tumbled down for just 8 runs for four wickets. Unbeaten Hina made another cracking 21 runs off 12 balls with five boundaries and one six.
Earlier, Mardan skipper Neelam won the toss and decided to bat first by setting up 83 runs target for the loss of all out in 11.2 overs of the allotted 20 overs. Only Uzman (20) Sidra (10) Neelam 15 and Sana (12) runs were the top contributors, none of the other Mardan batswomen crossed the double figures. With 33 runs extra, Mardan setup 83 run target for Charsadda to chase. Mehtab, who played a key role in the batting, claimed three wickets for 13 runs in her 4 overs spell. Seema, Afsheen took two wickets each while Hasanat took one wicket.
In reply, Charsadda chased the target for the loss of six wickets with both Mehtab and Hina guiding their team to victory. Mehtab made 46 runs not out and Hina scored 21 runs not out. For Mardan Rana, Sumbal and Kiran took one wicket each. Thus Charsadda won the match by six wickets.
In the second match Peshawar North defeated Charsadda Stars by five wickets. Charsadda won the toss and batted first. Charsadda scored just 56 runs all out in 14,2 overs of the 20 overs match wherein only middle order Rasheeda scored 23 runs and none of the other could score as four of the Charsadda batswomen were out on zero score. For Peshawar North team Mahnoor, Noursheen, Malaika took two wickets each while Neelam got one wicket.
In reply to a low runs target of Charsadda Stars, Peshawar North Neelam smashed unbeaten 26 runs off 12 balls with five boundaries, Momina scored 16 runs with two boundaries and Salam scored 10 with one boundaries and were the high runs contributors. Seema, the right arm spinner, took three wickets for 18 runs in her four over spell and Afsheen took two wickets for 19 runs in her four overs spell. Thus Peshawar North won the match by five wickets. It was the second victory of Peshawar North in the Championship with international cricketer Salma Faiz leading her team from the front. Jamshed Khan, Ahmed Nadeem supervised the matches while Nadeem Akhtar acted as official scorer.
Before the start of the matches in the morning the teams were introduced to international level-III coach Miss Hajra Sarwar, who also coached Afghanistan and Iran female cricket teams. Pakistan Cricket Board with the collaboration of Directorate of Youth Affairs, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is holding the KP Women Twenty20 Cricket League.
