Pace man Kashif Raza bowled Sheikhupura to their second consecutive win in the One-day tournament (Associations), beating Faisalabad by a narrow margin of four wickets in a low scoring match played at the Sheikhupura Stadium.

Kashif, who made his ODI debut in last month's ARY Gold Cup in Sharjah, bowled at a nagging line and length, allowing minimum of liberty to the opposition's batsmen, grabbing four wickets for 35 runs in his ten overs.

After getting rid of wicket keeper Mohammad Salman for 9, the right-handed pace man dismissed Hasnain Haider, Ijaz Mahmood and Sabir Hussain in quick succession to reduce Faisalabad to 74 for 6 by the 18th over, a position from which they did never quite recover.

The remaining damage was inflicted by Mohammad Haroon (2 for 15 in 7.1 overs) and Farrukh Majeed (2 for 11 in three overs), as the visitors were sent packing for 127 in 37.1 overs, after being put into bat by the hosts.

For Faisalabad, the major contribution came from 30 extras, including 16 wides and 10 no balls. Their opening batsman Imran Younis top scored with 25 off 36 balls, whereas Tauqeer Hussain and Khurram Shehzad got 14 (48 balls) and 15 (44 balls) each, respectively.

Sheikhupura had not a very confident start to their run-chase, as they were reduced to 9 for 2 by the 3rd over. However, a 40-run third wicket partnership between Majid Majeed (14 off 53) and Mohammad Ayub (29 off 63) steered them out of imminent disaster.

Ayub added another valuable 37 for the 4th wicket with Mohammad Shahbaz (28 off 38), before a mini-collapse saw them losing three quick wickets with the addition of 11 runs.

Sarfraz Kazmi and Naseem Abbas joined hands at this critical juncture and with a careful approach saw their side through by the 36th over. Sarfraz remained not out on 21 off 23, whereas Naseem made an unbeaten 11 off the same number of balls.

Naeem Ashraf, the right-handed pace man, bowled well for Faisalabad, getting three wickets for a meager 25, while Sohail Nazir got 2 for 14.

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