Khyber Pakhtunkhwa thrash Central Punjab to win second consecutive National T20 championship

A phenomenal all-around performance by Iftikhar Ahmed helped the defending champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to crush Central Punjab by seven wickets in the final of the Pakistan National T20 tournament and defend their championship in Lahore.

Iftikhar first took three wickets for just five runs in his two-over spell that included the big wicket of Ahmed Shehzad, who was looking set on a 36-ball 44. His other two scalps were Hussain Talat and Sai Badar.

Chasing a middling total of 149 runs, the Khyber side was up and running with the top order batsmen contributing decently. However, they could not put the side in a commanding position and it need Iftikhar to rule the show once again and this time he dismantled Central Punjab with his bat and hit 19-ball 45 to help Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the second consecutive championship.

From Central Punjab, the experienced duo of Shehzad and Kamran Akmal were the most successful batsmen against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bowling attack led by Imran Khan and Arsh Iqbal, and Mohammad Imran, who took three wickets.

On the other hand, for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kamran Ghulam was the highest run score on the night of the final and laid the platform for their win along with Sahibzada Farhan and Kamran Ghulam.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa proved themselves as the team to beat in the tournament and fittingly, Iftikhar Ahmed was awarded the Man of the Match and tournament to establish his all-around dominance in the tournament.

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