CNN) — Zimbabwe’s electoral commission has started to release results of elections after a delay that has raised fears of vote-rigging and brought security forces onto the streets.
Ballot boxes are unloaded from a car while a police officer looks on at a polling station in Zvimba, about 120 kilometers west of Harare.
Even before the first results were announced, the major opposition party insisted it had won enough votes to end President Robert Mugabe’s three-decade rule over Zimbabwe which is suffering from economic meltdown.
Zimbabwe’s ZTV television network began broadcasting results about 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) Monday, one seat at a time. With 210 races to report, it appeared the announcement process would be slow.
In the first six races announced, President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party was declared the winner in three, while the opposition Movement for Democratic Change won the other three.
Four hours later, results for 18 more parliament seats were announced with nine seats each going to the ruling and opposition parties, according to The Associated Press. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa lost his seat in a former ruling party rural stronghold.
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The announcement appeared to have been delayed despite election observers saying some results were known on Saturday night, four hours after polls closed. In previous elections, partial results were announced hours after voting ended.
“Clearly the delay is fueling speculation that something might be going on,” Noel Kututwa, chairman of a network of civic, church and other groups, told AP.
Election observers have urged prompt reporting of the results to avoid political unrest. Government officials said it took time to verify and “harmonize” the results.
In the presidential race, Morgan Tsvangirai of the main opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, and former finance minister Simba Makoni of the Independent party were vying to unseat the 84-year-old Mugabe.
Criticism of Mugabe has grown across Zimbabwe, with unemployment running at 80 percent. Most Zimbabweans survive on less than $1 a day and inflation is the highest in the world at more than 100,000 percent.
People also suffer from chronic shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine.
Defying a government order, the MDC released its count of the votes on Sunday and claimed victory. The party said exit polls showed Tsvangirai won 67 percent of the votes, journalists inside Zimbabwe told CNN.
But officials loyal to Mugabe warned Tsvangirai against declaring a victory. “It is called a coup d’etat and we all know how coups are handled,” presidential spokesman George Charamba told the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper.
Many people on Sunday celebrated in Harare but as frustrations grew over the delayed announcement, riot police patrolled the capital’s densely populated suburbs, independent election monitors said, according to AP.
Observers from the South African Democratic Alliance opposition party also said its sources had said the opposition had won a majority in most areas.
“If this is not reflected in the results, this will be yet another indication that the election was rigged,” they added.
The Zimbabwean government has denied CNN and other international news organizations permission to report on the elections.
The government had said it planned to release complete results on Monday, but Takura Zhangazha, a local media watchdog representative, said it was unclear if that will happen.
Zhangazha warned that the government needed to announce results “as soon as possible to allay any fears of rigging or cheating in terms of the vote.” Watch polls close in Zimbabwe »
“There’s too much speculation, and the speculation tends to lead to a lot of political tension,” said Zhangazha of the Media Institute for Southern Africa.
“I would not want to see people then fighting over the results or any political violence or tensions then occurring.”
Critics of the government had predicted voting would be rigged. The United States warned of a possible unfair election.
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SHANGHAI — After two weeks in which China contended that Tibet’s government in exile had instigated the riots earlier this month to tarnish the coming Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese government on Sunday issued for the first time what it said was evidence of the plot.
More than 100 Tibetans were detained after clashes with the police Sunday outside the Chinese Embassy in Katmandu.
Times Topics: TibetXinhua, the state-run news agency, said the Chinese police had a confession written by an unidentified monk who they said received orders from supporters of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In what an article described as the confession, the monk said: “For the sake of protecting myself, (the Dalai Lama clique) asked me not to participate in the demonstrations in person, just in charge of stirring people up.”
The Chinese government has not held a news conference to identify the monk or explain the circumstances of the confession, so it was not possible to verify either the existence of the monk or of such a statement.
For weeks, China has said it has strong evidence that the riots and protests in Tibet and neighboring regions were orchestrated by the “Dalai clique.”
The Tibetan government, based in Dharamsala, India, quickly dismissed such claims, saying that China was trying to pin blame on Tibetan exiles.
“These are baseless allegations,” Tenzin Taklha, the Dalai Lama’s secretary in Dharamsala, said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “Their spinmasters are trying to put the blame on us.”
Mr. Taklha called on China to allow an independent organization to investigate the accusations.
Since riots erupted March 14 in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, journalists and diplomats have been prevented from traveling freely in Tibet and neighboring regions with large Tibetan populations, some of which have faced serious unrest.
Pressure continues to mount for China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama and find a solution to a problem that has already begun to affect preparations for the Olympics. China has tried to convince other countries that the Dalai Lama’s supporters are behind the unrest and that they finance and equip separatists inside China.
On Saturday, China said it had seized a cache of guns, ammunition, explosives and sophisticated communications equipment at a Buddhist monastery in Sichuan Province, a part of southwestern China that has been the scene of Tibetan protests.
The police in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, scuffled Sunday with Tibetan protesters near the Chinese Embassy. More than 100 people, some of whom were chanting pro-independence slogans, were detained, Reuters reported.
In Athens, protesters tried to disrupt the Olympic torch ceremony, as Greece handed over the flame to China. The government plans to hold a ceremony in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Monday, before the Olympic torch begins its journey around the world.
European Union foreign ministers, meeting in Slovenia over the weekend, also called for an end to violence in Tibet and for talks between China and the Dalai Lama.
But Chinese leaders continue to take a hard-line approach. They contend that the Dalai Lama and his government in exile have orchestrated a violent separatist campaign, resulting in the recent clashes that killed about 20 people and wounded hundreds in Lhasa and neighboring regions.
Tibetan groups say China’s harsh suppression of the protests and riots has killed more than 140 people and has resulted in the detention and harassment of hundreds of Tibetans, including monks.
The Chinese government also said it had arrested 26 people suspected of rioting in Aba County, Sichuan Province.
There seems to be little room for compromise. China says the Dalai Lama has walked away from negotiations and has lied. For his part, the Dalai Lama says that he does not support violence, that he supports having the Olympic Games in Beijing and that he is willing to negotiate.
Group Tries to Block Torch
ATHENS — Shouting “Free Tibet” and flashing red banners reading “Stop Genocide in Tibet,” demonstrators charged a police cordon here on Sunday, trying to block the Olympic flame from making its final 100-yard run into a sprawling marble arena.
Backed by riot squads, scores of police officers detained 10 of an estimated 15 demonstrators, taking them to Greece’s national police headquarters minutes after the ceremony began.
Greece carried out a major security operation for the event, deploying more than 1,000 police officers and changing the flame’s route at least three times.
Yet even before the handover began, three supporters of Falun Gong were detained outside Panathinaiko Stadium for distributing leaflets on the spiritual movement outlawed in China.
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BOLINGBROOK, Ill. – After a winter hiatus, more than 50 volunteers resumed their ground search Saturday for a suburban Chicago mother who went missing last fall.
Searchers gathered in Bolingbrook, where Stacy Peterson was last seen in late October.
“Right now we’re looking for a body,” said Cassandra Cales, Peterson’s younger sister. “We’re looking for grave sites … anything.”
Investigators are treating the case as a possible homicide and have named Peterson’s husband, former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson, as a suspect. A grand jury is looking into both her disappearance and the death of his ex-wife, Kathleen Savio.
Drew Peterson, who hasn’t been charged and denies any wrongdoing in both cases, has said Stacy left him for another man. A message left for Drew Peterson’s attorney Saturday evening was not returned.
The search was set to continue on Sunday and then every following weekend, as long as enough funds are available to cover fuel and other expenses, organizers said.
“As long as it takes — that’s our new motto,” said Roy Taylor, a search organizer. “We will find Stacy.”
LOS ANGELES – Unions representing film and television actors will negotiate separately with producers in upcoming contract talks after board members of the TV actors union voted Saturday to sever a long-standing agreement between the two guilds.
The vote by the board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists came hours before a meeting with the Screen Actors Guild and just three months before the expiration of the contract covering movies and prime-time shows.
Despite a sometimes rocky 27-year relationship the unions had shown recent signs of peace as they prepared for the upcoming talks.
The two groups had hoped at Saturday’s meeting to set a start date for negotiations. Instead of discussing strategies the sides swapped accusations.
“For the past year SAG leadership in Hollywood has engaged in a relentless campaign of disinformation and disparagement,” AFTRA president Roberta Reardon said in a written statement.
SAG President Alan Rosenberg’s written response: “AFTRA’s refusal now to bargain together with us and their last-second abandonment of the joint process is calculated, cynical and may serve the interests of their institution, but not its members.”
The AFTRA board said the vote to terminate the agreement, known as “Phase One,” was “overwhelming.”
Wary of repeating the damage wrought by the recently ended 100-day Hollywood writers strike, producers and several A-list actors including Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro had been pressing for negotiations to start as early as this week.
The 120,000-member Screen Actors Guild represents actors in movies, TV and other media. The 70,000-member TV and radio federation represents, among others, actors, singers, announcers and journalists.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, said in a statement that it looks forward to bargaining with AFTRA. It did not mention SAG.
ATHENS, Greece — Greek officials handed over the Olympic flame to organizers of the Beijing Games on Sunday amid small protests by a pro-Tibetan group.
The ceremony was held at the marble Panathenian Stadium, where the first modern Olympics were staged in 1896.
Outside the stadium, police scuffled with pro-Tibet demonstrators and prevented others from unfurling protest banners. Twenty-one demonstrators were detained — seven Indians, one Nepalese and 13 Greeks — and were all due to be released without charge, police said.
The protesters challenged a police cordon but failed to disrupt the final leg of Greece’s torch relay — from the Acropolis to the stadium.
“Our aim was to call attention to human and animal rights abuses in China,” detained protester Roza Minakouli, a 65-year-old environmental campaigner, told The Associated Press by telephone.
“We have no business sharing the flame with people who do not deserve it.”
The protesters chanted “Save Tibet!” and unfurled a banner which read “Stop Genocide in Tibet.”
Police security was tight inside the stadium and around the city following small protests by pro-Tibet and human rights groups at the March 24 flame-lighting ceremony and during the weeklong Greek leg of the torch relay.
At Sunday’s ceremony, Hellenic Olympic Committee president Minos Kyriakou delivered the flame to chief Beijing organizer Liu Qi. The flame will arrive in Beijing on Monday.
“The Chinese government and its people will host a grand welcoming ceremony and officially launch the torch relay of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games,” Liu said. “The torch will for the first time ascend the summit of the world (Mount Everest), thereby testifying to the great strength of the Olympic movement in marking the progress of human civilization.”
Kyriakou called for the flame to be respected during its journey.
“The Olympic flame is the timeless symbol which stirs admiration, pride and faith (in) the Olympic ideals and values,” Kyriakou said. “I hope the world community welcomes the flame and honors it, showing the same feeling and necessary respect (as Greeks did).”
About 7,000 Greek and Chinese spectators inside the Panathenian Stadium watched as Greek triple jumper Hrysopigi Devetzi carried the torch into the stadium lined with Greek and Chinese flags. Greek presidential guards and actresses dressed as ancient priestesses looked on.
“It was an emotional experience for me,” Devetzi said. “I hope the flame will bring light to all athletes, especially those from Greece and that everything with the games goes well.”
On Saturday and Sunday, about 2,000 police were deployed around Athens.
Greek Olympic organizers have angrily condemned the protests, while two journalist groups and the small Left Coalition Party spoke out in their support.
The torch is to arrive Monday in Beijing on a purpose-fitted airliner. It then will travel through 20 countries before returning to mainland China — covering 85,100 miles.
Pro-Tibet groups are expected to stage protests along the international torch route and have already announced a demonstration in London on April 6 to coincide with the relay there.
Led by monks, the Tibet protests began peacefully on March 10 — the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese communist troops entered in 1950.
Tibetan exiles say almost 140 people have died in the violence in Tibet. Beijing puts the number at 22.
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Two Coronary Stents Implanted at the Same Time Increase Clotting Risk, Study Finds
heart patients who have two coronary stents used during an emergency procedure have more than four times the chance than other patients of having a clot inside one of the stents block blood flow to the heart.
This finding by Dutch researchers presented in Chicago March 29 at a scientific session sponsored by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) concluded that one-in-six stent patients could expect a single incident of stent thrombosis, which could lead to a heart attack. But those who had more than one stent used at the same time had four times the risk of thrombosis.
A stent is a tiny, wire mesh tub the forces the walls of a clogged artery open, but medical experts are still debating whether its benefits consistently outweigh possible disadvantages.
According to a joint news release from the ACC and SCAI, cardiologist Dr. Jochem Wouter van Werkum and his colleagues examined the results of 437 heart patients who received stents between 2004 and 2007. There were 74 incidents of stent thrombosis (16.9 percent), the study found. But when more than one stent had been used, the likelihood of stent thrombosis increased 4.2 times.
The conclusion: Additional stent placement at the time of emergency treatment for the first stent thrombosis should be avoided, the researchers said.
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CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- Drug-coated stents did not increase the risk of death or another heart attack when used to treat heart attack patients, in comparison with bare-metal stents, and performed better when it came to avoiding renarrowing in arteries, according to a study released Sunday.
Data from the study were presented at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Intervention’s annual conference, which is being held here alongside the American College of Cardiology’s conference.
The study included two-year, risk-adjusted data from more than 7,200 patients who were treated with stents in Massachusetts hospitals to prop open heart arteries following a heart attack. Among coated stents, which use medication to combat renarrowing, first-generation devices have been associated with a slightly elevated risk for triggering dangerous clots – to which heart attack patients already have an elevated risk.
But the data from the Massachusetts study, which included 4,016 patients with coated stents and 3,200 with bare-metal stents, did not show a higher rate of death or repeat heart attacks in patients who received a coated stent.
Dr. Laura Mauri, an interventional cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and lead investigator on the study, said in a release that the results were reassuring. “I would feel comfortable considering drug-eluting stents on the basis of these results – with the caveats that treated patients must be able to take antiplatelet therapy and that we definitely want to see even longer-term term follow-up,” Mauri said in an SCAI release.
Patients typically take courses of antiplatelet drugs to guard against clots forming around the stent after it’s implanted, and long courses if they have a coated stent. Mauri, who is also chief scientific officer at the Harvard Clinical Research Institute, has received honoraria from the big coated stent makers, which are Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) unit Cordis, Medtronic Inc. (MDT) and Abbott Laboratories Inc. (ABT).
The Massachusetts study found that coated stents performed as designed when it came to avoiding repeat procedures in heart attack patients – the rate of such procedures was significantly lower in coated stent patients, at 15.5% verses 20.8% for patients with bare-metal stents.
On the measure of death, the rate was 10.4% with coated stents verses 13.2% with bare-metal stents. Repeat heart attacks occurred 9.5% of the time in coated-stent patients, and 11% of the time in bare-metal patients.
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Lahore Badshahs 153 for 4 (Raza 48, Taufeeq 41, Latif 30*) beat Kolkata Tigers 131 for 7 (Gavaskar 46*, McMillan 30) by 22 runs
Twenty-two runs was the margin of defeat for the Kolkata Tigers; 22 was also the runs conceded by Tigers medium-pacer Abu Nechim in one over.
The Badshahs had been unconquered in five matches so far in the tournament. The Tigers seemed to have them on the mat, but they ended up being tamed. The Badshahs, without captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, were put in to bat by the Tigers and a tight performance from the bowlers left them at only 53 for 2 at the half-way stage.
Taufeeq Umar held together the innings with a 35-ball 41, and his dismissal paved the way for Hasan Raza and Naved Latif to take charge. They didn’t disappoint, as 64 runs were scored off the final five overs.
Latif got the momentum going with a six off Upul Chandana in the 16th, before both he and Raza belted a four and a six in the next from Nechim, which went for 22. The same Nechim had been the star for the Tigers on Wednesday, wrecking the Chandigarh Lions’ semi-final hopes with his 4 for 27.
Further punishment was inflicted in the 20th over bowled by Nantie Hayward, with Azhar Mahmood – facing his first ball – hitting a six off the final delivery. Raza was run out for 48, while Latif was unbeaten on 30 from 17.
Mahmood struck soon after as the Tigers began their hunt, and when his new-ball partner Mohammad Sami scalped the dangerous Lance Klusener, which was soon followed by Deep Dasgupta’s run-out, the Tigers were tottering at 12 for 4.
Despite a run-a-ball 46 from Rohan Gavaskar, and captain Craig McMillan’s 30, the Tigers couldn’t upstage the Badshahs. They finished at 131 for 7. For the Badshahs, it was an impressive collective bowling effort; of the five bowlers used, offspinner Arshad Khan, playing his first match of the tournament, was the most expensive with 26 coming off his four.
The Badshahs next take on the bottom-placed Ahmedabad Rockets in their final encounter on Sunday, while the Kolkata Tigers take on the Delhi Giants in an important clash to determine a semi-final spot.
South Africa will not be playing a Test series against Pakistan in the near future, scuppering the Pakistan Cricket Board’s increasingly frenzied efforts to try and fill up an empty international calendar.
Pakistan sent an official proposal to Cricket South Africa (CSA) yesterday, though local reports had revealed the proposal some time ago. Yesterday, some Urdu newspapers carried quotes from Nasim Ashraf, chairman PCB, claiming that South Africa had agreed to play a Test series in October, though the venue had yet to be agreed upon.
But another PCB that the proposal was only sent yesterday and is unlikely whether CSA would have received it. “We are free during October and South Africa are also free, so we have proposed a three-Test series in that period, to be played in either Pakistan or South Africa,” Shafqat Naghmi, chief operating officer PCB, said. “We only sent the proposal yesterday so are not sure how they will respond.”
A CSA official, however, said that no such proposal had yet been received and even if there is one, South Africa will not be available. “Statements in the media attributed to the Pakistan Cricket Board relating to a possible Pakistan vs South Africa Test series, are without substance,” a statement from Brian Basson, General Manager Cricket Operations, said.
“Cricket South Africa is yet to receive a formal request from the PCB. Should a request of this nature come through from PCB, CSA would unfortunately not be in a position to accept such a proposal due to its intense tour schedule.”
After the ICC Champions Trophy in September, to be held in Pakistan, South Africa are due to host Bangladesh in November, before heading off to Australia. Not only does the refusal come as a further blow to the PCB’s efforts to fill up its calendar, it will raise further questions about the method in which the board has approached the task.
Since Australia pulled out of its tour for March-April, due to security concerns, Pakistani officials have scurried around trying to line up commitments in a calendar where they play six Tests between December 2007 and November 2009.
They have succeeded only in inviting Bangladesh for a series of five ODIs in April and though Sri Lanka agreed to a similar series, a clash with the Indian Premier League (IPL) has temporarily sidelined that. Though the PCB denied that the IPL had anything to do with it, believes that alongside SLC, both boards agreed to not play the series as originally proposed between April 23 and May 5 as it would deprive the IPL of several big names from either side.
The Pakistan board says the series could instead be played in June, but in the same breath mentions a possible tri-series in Bangladesh, also in the same month. June in any case is earmarked for the Asia Cup, due to be held in Pakistan for the first time. Additionally, the extreme summer temperatures make cricket impossible in most parts of the country, except Karachi.
Earlier in March, board officials were ’99%’ convinced that India would agree to play a three-match ODI series in Pakistan, a conviction never shared by the BCCI. The series with Sri Lanka, also apparently confirmed, seems unlikely to happen anytime soon. Now South Africa have refused a proposal before even receiving it, confirming perhaps that the PCB is approaching the problem with a series of knee-jerk reactions and ill-conceived proposals as opposed to a proper strategy.
Group A
Habib Bank Limited (HBL) registered a five-wicket win over Lahore Lions at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) Stadium . Needing a win after having lost one of their four previous matches, Habib Bank overhauled Lahore Lions’ score of 256 for 8 with 14 balls to spare.
The opener Asif Khan made an exact 100 after the Lions opted to bat first. His knock, which came off 122 balls with 11 fours and two sixes, got his team off to a start. Ahmed Butt later contributed 54 runs off just 45 balls with five fours and a six. Pakistan fast bowler Umar Gul, who appears to be recovering fast from his injury problems, took 3 for 29 runs in nine overs. Slow left-armers Aslam Qureshi and Abdul Rehman picked up two wickets each.
Habib Bank were well served by their makeshift opener Sajid Shah who hit 58 off 44 balls with as many as 11 fours and a six. Rafatullah Mohmand, with 70 off 102 balls that included four fours, and Aftab Khan then added 110 for the third-wicket stand.
Aftab took 99 deliveries to score 83 runs with the help of four fours and a six. Habib Bank thus joined KRL in the Super Eights Stage, that starts from Monday.
Islamabad Leopards, also in the running for a Super Eights spot, beat Quetta Bears by eight wickets, in another match yesterday at the Diamond Cricket Club Ground in Islamabad. But Habib Bank’s win left them at 12 points from five matches. Habib Bank ended with 16.
After having dismissed Quetta for 204, the Leopards were powered by their opener Umair Khan who finished with an unbeaten 105 that came off only 97 deliveries with 15 fours and a six. Raheel Majeed hit 55 off 41 balls with five fours and three sixes, helping Umair add 103 for the second-wicket in 13 overs.
Already through to the Super Eights round, Khan Research Laboratories attained their fifth win in as many matches to head the table with the full 20 points, as they thrashed Peshawar Panthers by a big 142-run margin at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar.
Azhar Ali (119) and Bazid Khan (100) hit centuries in KRL’s imposing score of 319 for 7 as their third-wicket stand produced 185 runs. The Panthers were bowled out for 177 in reply, with Pakistan seamer Yasir Arafat picking up four wickets for 45 runs in eight overs. Jamaluddin meanwhile stood firm with an unbeaten 81 that came off 90 balls with 14 fours.
Group B
Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) qualified for the Super Eights as they defeated Sialkot Stallions by 117 runs at the Jinnah Stadium. SNGPL, in fact, finished on top of the five-team Group B table with 12 points from five matches.
Pakistan batsman Misbah-ul-Haq scored his second century in successive matches, his eighth overall in limited overs cricket, as he hammered 107 off 106 balls with 10 fours and a six in SNGPL’s total of 296 for 9. His fourth-wicket partnership with Pakistan Under-19 batsman Umar Akmal, who made 66 off 83 balls with four boundaries, was worth 115 runs.
Sialkot Stallions were dismissed for 179 in 42.5 overs. SNGPL captain Mohammad Hafeez followed his score of 40 with bowling figures of 3 for 45 runs in seven overs with his off-spinners.
Previous leaders Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) were beaten by Multan Tigers by 27 runs at the Sheikhupura Stadium in their last round match yesterday, after they had already made it to the Super Eights. WAPDA too claimed 12 points, but they were eventually pushed to the number two spot after SNGPL surged ahead on the basis of a better net run-rate.
WAPDA were surprised by Multan Tigers, who won their first match of the tournament. WAPDA were all out for 271 after the Multan team had compiled 298 for 7 in their 50 overs.
There was only one half-century in Multan’s big total, with Imranullah Aslam scoring 60 off a mere 32 balls with four fours and four sixes. For WAPDA, Aamer Sajjad’s unbeaten 111 off 122 balls with 10 fours at No.4 wasn’t enough to guide his team to victory.
Group C
Lahore Eagles made the Super Eights in style as they defeated National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) by four wickets in a high-scoring match at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Desperately needing a win, Lahore Eagles overhauled NBP’s big total of 334 for 6 with just three balls to spare. Pakistan’s 16-year-old Under-19 star Ahmed Shahzad blasted 92 for the Eagles off a mere 49 deliveries with 15 fours and three sixes. His opening stand with Ashfaq Ahmed (33) was worth 118 in 13 overs.
Shahzad has now scored 60, 88 not out and 92 in his last three innings for Lahore Eagles. The left-handed Kashif Siddiq continued the good work, scoring a 34-ball 31 that included three sixes while Ashraf Ali later made an unbeaten 75 that came off 93 balls with two fours.
Earlier, wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal hit 90 off 96 balls with eight fours as he and captain Naumanullah (50) rattled up 111 runs for the third wicket. Shahid Yousuf, contributed a brisk 61 off 65 balls with four fours and a six. Mansoor Amjad came in to hammer an unbeaten 52 off 36 balls towards the end.
At the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad, Pakistan Customs beat Faisalabad Wolves by three wickets. Farhan Adil scored an exact 100, off 100 balls with five fours and a six, as Customs made 250 for 7 in reply to Faisalabad’s 246 to win with just one ball remaining. Customs, however, ended their Group C league round with only eight points from four matches.
Group D
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) thrashed Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) by the emphatic margin of nine wickets at the Newsletter National Stadium in Karachi on Friday.
Having bowled SSGC out, after having asked them to bat first, for a modest 166, the PIA batsmen reached the target with more than five overs to spare. Kamran Sajid top scored with an unbeaten 80 that came off 132 balls while Khurram Manzoor scored an unbeaten 73 and the two added 163 for the second wicket and took their team through to victory.
Khurram’s knock came off 134 deliveries and included three fours and a six. Sajid had earlier captured two wickets for 23 runs in eight overs, while slow left-armer Nauman Alvi was the most successful with figures of 3 for 31.
Experienced SSGC captain Saeed Bin Nasir top-scored with 46, that came off 66 balls with two fours and two sixes. His fifth-wicket stand with Mansoor Ali (35) was worth 67. But the last six SSGC wickets could only add a mere 17 runs. PIA will be joined by Rawalpindi Rams in the Super Eights Stage, starting from Monday, from the six teams that played in Group D.
In an inconsequential match, Karachi Dolphins earned some consolation as they defeated Abbottabad Rhinos by 69 runs to gain their only win in five matches at the United Bank Limited (UBL) Sports Complex Ground No.1.
Thanks to an unbeaten 141 by the Dolphins captain and opener Shadab Kabir, they notched up a total of 279 for the loss of only three wickets in their fifty overs. In reply, the Rhinos were bowled out for 210 in 48.5 overs. Slow left-armer Mohammad Ali and the Pakistan U-19s legspinner Shahzaib Khan had identical figures of three wickets for 38 runs in 10 overs for the Dolphins.
The 30-year-old Kabir, who has represented Pakistan in five Tests and three one-dayers, posted his fourth hundred in major limited overs cricket. His knock came off just 142 balls with 11 fours and two sixes.
With the in-form Akbar Rehman (40 off 64 balls with two fours and a six), Shadab’s second-wicket stand yielded 95 in a matter of 10 overs. Faraz Patel (36) joined Kabir to add another 91 for the third wicket.
Sharjeel Ashraf, 20 not out, helped Shadab put on 52 for the fourth-wicket by the time the overs ran out. Abbottabad’s opener and wicketkeeper Ghulam Mohammad (31 off 26 balls with five fours) and Wajid Ali (35) added 51 for the second wicket. Later on, Usman Khan hit 53 off 61 deliveries with five fours to boost his team’s score. Due to some tight bowling, the Rhinos fell well before the target could be achieved.
Rawalpindi Rams performed a sort of giant-killing act as they beat Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) by a big 111-run margin at the Niaz Stadium to go through to the Super Eights.
After being asked to bat, the Rams rattled up a score of 255 for 8 in their allotted 50 overs. ZTBL, seven of whose batsmen failed to get into double figures, were bowled out for a poor 144 in 44 overs. At one stage, ZTBL lost five wickets for only 23 runs on the board before the tenth over. The sixth wicket fell at 52. Zohaib Khan and wicketkeeper Shakeel Ansar then recovered with a 72-run stand for the seventh wicket.
Zohaib’s 59 came off 90 balls with four fours while Shakeel took 61 balls for his 33 that included three boundaries. The end was, however, quite near and the last four wickets fell for the addition of 20 runs.
Rawalpindi’s successful new-ball bowler Yasir Ali continued his wicket-taking spree with figures of 3 for 16 in seven overs. His left-arm medium-fast partner Mohammad Aamer, slow left-armer Yasim Murtaza and captain Naved Ashraf, with his off-breaks, picked up two wickets each.
Earlier, the Rams were in trouble at 97 for 5. Yasim Murtaza and Yasir Ali were the batting heroes too as they added 80 for the eighth wicket and took their team well beyond the 200-run mark.
The left-handed Yasim hammered an unbeaten 53 off a mere 42 balls with three fours and as many sixes. Yasir’s 37 came off 31 deliveries with three fours and a six. With this win, the Rams took their points tally in the six-team Group D to 16
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