Balochistan beat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by six wickets

In a clash close to the top of the table, Balochistan avenged their crushing defeat against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last week by inflicting a similar loss on Mohammad Rizwan's side. Awais Zia's unbeaten 49-ball 92 helped Balochistan make short work of the 155-run target, which they achieved with six wickets and 20 balls to spare. After Shaheen Afridi removed Abdul Bangalzai for a first-ball duck and Bismillah Khan in his second over, Zia took charge of the chase single-handedly. Brushing aside the further losses of Imran Butt and his skipper Haris Sohail, Zia farmed the strike with Akbar-ur-Rehman at the other end, who played his part, finishing unbeaten on 24 and hitting the winning runs.

After winning the toss, Balochistan had put KP in and removed both in-form players Mohammad Hafeez and Rizwan cheaply. Fakhar Zaman struggled to get going in the face of tight bowling, particularly by Akif Javed and Khurram Shehzad, whose combined figures of 8-0-40-3 a tell-tale sign of KP's struggles with the bat.

Opener Awais Zia scored an unbeaten 92 to ensure his team easily surpass the 155-run chase against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.#NationalT20Cup | #HarHaalMainCricket | #BALvKP pic.twitter.com/kaYqRpD7xl

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) October 10, 2020

It was left to veteran Shoaib Malik to take them to a competitive total, as he rolled back the years to wallop 74 off 44 balls to help his side get past 150. But support from the other end wasn't forthcoming, of which they eventually paid the price.