Day: April 16, 2024

The first match of five T-20 matches between Pakistan and New Zealand will be played in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

Rawalpindi will host first three matches of the series while remaining two matches will be played in Lahore.

Source: Radio Pakistan

Pakistan Cricket Board is set to conduct National Women’s One-Day Tournament from April 17 as six regions fight it out to determine the winner.

The tournament will be held in a Double-Round Robin format, identical to Pakistan Super League, as each side will play 10 league matches before the top two sides progress to the Final for a total Prize Money of PKR 2.245 Million.

All the matches are scheduled to be held across four venues: Jawad Sports Complex Ground, Iqbal Stadium, Bohranwali Ground and Saeed Ajmal Academy Ground, in Faisalabad. A total of 30 league matches and the Final will be held in the four grounds.

Schedule For Day One

Date Teams Ground

17-04-2024 Quetta Vs Rawalpindi Jawad Sports Complex Ground

17-04-2024 Karachi Vs Multan Iqbal Stadium

17-04-2024 Peshawar Vs Lahore Bohranwali Ground

The six regions fighting for the title include: (1) Karachi (2) Lahore (3) Quetta (4) Multan (5) Peshawar (6) Rawalpindi.

One problem arises with the scheduling of the tournament, as the national side is
playing a home series against West Indies where the first-choice cricketers are occupied.

The quality of the domestic tournament will be judged once it begins as the premier cricketers aren’t available during the majority part of the league stage.

West Indies are touring Pakistan for a three-match WODI and five-match WT20I series.

Regions and Captains

Region Captain

Karachi Omaima Sohail

Lahore Kaynat Hafeez

Quetta Saima Malik

Multan Humna Bilal

Peshawar Gull Rukh

Rawalpindi Mahnoor Aftab

Source: Pro Pakistani

Pakistan’s wicket-keeper batter, Mohammad Rizwan, is set to achieve another milestone in T20I cricket as Pakistan face New Zealand in a five-match series beginning April 18 at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

Rizwan is close to surpassing Indian top-order batter, Virat Kohli, and Pakistan’s white-ball captain, Babar Azam, record for the fastest 3,000 runs in T20I cricket; both achieved the feat in 81 innings each.

The unorthodox batter has scored 2,981 runs in 78 innings, needing 19 more runs in his next two innings to break the record. Achieving this feat would also make him the second Pakistani, after Babar, to reach 3,000 runs in T20I cricket.

In February, Mohammad Rizwan achieved an unprecedented milestone in T20 cricket by accumulating the most runs in T20 cricket since 2021.

The captain of the Pakistan Super League franchise, Multan Sultans, has scored 5,293 runs in 126 innings with a stellar average of 51.36, making him the most prolific batter in the last three seasons. He is the only batter in the wo
rld to score more than 5,000 runs in the format since 2021.

Rizwan’s numbers in International cricket have elevated to another level; he has a staggering record in the T20Is with 2981 runs, which include 26 fifties and one century.

Multan reached the Final of Pakistan Super League 9 under his leadership. His name did the rounds while the Pakistan Cricket Board were thinking of replacing Shaheen Shah Afridi as the T20I captain.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Sports Board Punjab (SBP) has refused to provide their venue for the National Challenge Cup known as Pakistan’s biggest football cup competition organized by the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) yearly.

PFF announced earlier that the competition would be held from May 1 to May 12 while all the 16 departmental and club teams had been sent invitations to participate in the knockout round of the tournament.

However, according to sources, the SBP has refused to provide the Punjab Athletic Stadium in Lahore to conduct the National Challenge Cup matches in early May considering the CM Punjab Pink Games 2024 are scheduled from May 2 to May 6 at the same venue.

Issues regarding the venue for the National Challenge Cup will be resolved in the upcoming days as the PFF has already started working on other football venues in Pakistan where the competition can be conducted successfully.

The Group stages of the National Challenge Cup were completed in January 2023 following the delays that lasted for 15 months the c
ompetition will finally start from the Round of 16 this time around.

Earlier, the PFF also announced that the National Women’s Football Championship will commence from May 5 and its final will be held on May 21.

A total of 16 teams will participate in the women’s football league while all the teams will be divided into 4 groups with the top two teams from each group advancing into the quarterfinals.

It is pertinent to mention that both competitions are an integral part of Pakistan’s domestic football structure and the winner of the women’s football league will have a voting right in the PFF elections to elect the next PFF President.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Yesteryear’s premier swing bowler, Mohammad Asif, expressed his opinion regarding Naseem Shah in a recent interview with an independent source.

‘Naseem Shah exceeded my expectation in making a comeback and performing,’ as Asif saw Naseem’s performance in Pakistan Super League 9 where he won his franchise, Islamabad United, the PSL title.

Asif is highly impressed with Naseem’s recovery post his shoulder injury. The right-arm swing bowler didn’t expect the pacer to aid his team to the title in PSL 9.

Red-ball dynamite voiced his opinion related to the future of Naseem: ‘My suggestion to Naseem is that his swing shouldn’t end at the wicket-keeper, rather it should occur within the wicket.

‘You need to kill the opposition which can occur if you swing within the wicket,’ as Asif suggested that Naseem should practice swinging the bowl within the 22 yards of the wicket instead of when it has passed the batter and needs to be collected by the wicket-keeper.

The right-arm pacer expressed about the conditions in
the United States of America: ‘There are some pitches in USA where you can go with two fast bowlers and three spinners,’ as he has been playing in the States for multiple seasons after getting rejected from the Pakistan team primarily due to his spot-fixing scandal.

Asif informed that some pitches in the States suit three spinners which indicates that Pakistan might decide to go with an extra spinner for the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup squad.

Source: Pro Pakistani