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The second semi-final in Cardiff was played out among security concerns after pitch invasions and fracas outside the ground.Protesters invaded the pitch during both innings of India’s eight-wicket victory over Sri Lanka. The first saw two men attempt to get onto the field; one was stopped by the security cordon but the other broke free and ran to the middle brandishing a placard.In the second innings, six more protesters invaded the field, with several running into the Sri Lankan players and one even laying hands on Kusal Perera, who backpedalled and escaped his grasp.The protests continued after the match had finished, and a fight broke out outside the ground between protesters and supporters – replicating scenes outside The Oval on Monday after Sri Lanka’s victory over Australia.South Wales Police broke up the incidents but Sri Lanka’s departure from the ground was delayed until their exit could be secured.The Sri Lankan High Commission in the UK had raised fears about such incidents and had written to Scotland Yard requesting special security measures be put in place for the Sri Lankan team.The events raise questions over the security of the Champions Trophy, which is provided by G4S, the same firm who were heavily criticised over their handling of security for the London Olympics. The firm’s chief executive, Nick Buckles, resigned in May.

ScorecardAdil Rashid’s form continued with 72 on day two at Lord’s•Getty Images

On another truncated day that saw 36.4 overs lost to rain and gloom, Andrew Gale and Adil Rashid did their best to light up proceedings with an impressive stand of 109 to move the game along in Yorkshire’s favour. After waiting two years for a hundred, it seemed fitting the Yorkshire captain would bring up his second in the hyperbolic city of multiple buses.Within 91 minutes of coming together, the pair had already put on 102 runs (roughly equating to 204 runs in one session) which leaves Yorkshire the more comfortable of the two sides going into the final two days.Rashid has been enjoying an exceptional run of form since coming in to the side after injury to his good friend Azeem Rafiq. He was fortuitous today when, without a run to his name, Neil Dexter put him down at slip – his third drop in two games at this position – but he continued on with some exceptional shots.He drove Tim Murtagh down the ground twice with great aplomb, before his wrists did the talking with a flick through midwicket that was timed to perfection. If the on drive is a sign of a high class batsman, the flick through midwicket is the neon beacon of an in-form one.”I’ve always had good wrists,” Rashid tells ESPNcricinfo. It’s an Asian thing, he tells us – and we’re inclined to agree – but it is something he has had to actively work at curbing to excel.”I think before I relied on them a bit too much to score my runs. I certainly used to throw my hands at wide deliveries quite a lot and look for shots that weren’t really there. But I can’t be looking to flick the ball from outside off stump as I used to because of the wickets. Thinking like a top level batsman, you’ve got to play much straighter. Only when you’re in and you get the right width or length can you resort to your instincts.”Work has been done to turn this talented legspinner into the fully fledged allrounder that those that have worked with Rashid from school to the international setup know him to be. A taste of international cricket as jet-setting drinks carrier and then, belatedly, a limited overs player whetted the appetite but left more confusion than a greater sense of worth: “You’re around the team, then you’re in, then you’re out – it’s not the easiest thing to deal with when you’re 21, you know?”But a winter of focus and a heightened sense of responsibility has abetted more relaxed mind-set for Rashid.”Before I was quite tense because I didn’t really have a routine,” Rashid explained. “Previous seasons I would have batted at No. 7, 8 or even further down and probably obsessed more over my batting if I had a few bad knocks. Now I’m going in as a proper batsmen and it makes you approach things differently.”Such an approach was evident when Rashid returned from lunch and, essentially, sacrificed himself in pursuit of a fourth batting point in the 110th over. But his dismissal handed Middlesex a third point for their bowling exploits. Richard Pyrah went later that over and Andrew Hodd followed soon after, as four middle order wickets fell for just 32 runs.Despite the bad light and rain, the game has progressed thanks to a jam packed opening session. Overnight centurion Alex Lees went for the first ball of the day when he pushed at a delivery from James Harris, who had spent the majority of day one nursing a side strain in the outfield. The decision to keep him on the field to recover was vindicated – any time off would have to be made up in full on his return – as he took three wickets to help see off Yorkshire’s middle order.But the rate at which the visitors scored runs has pushed them ahead in this match and much of the credit belongs to Andrew Gale and Adil Rashid. Yorkshire’s collapse was clumsy, but they will just about get away with it.

Chris Gayle’s 175 that demolished Pune Warriors took only 66 deliveries, and included 17 sixes. While that may seem like the very definition of sustained hitting, and makes it hard to imagine a period where the batsman took it easy, Gayle spoke about how he paced his innings.”I didn’t want to just get the hundred and continue blasting and blasting and get out, you know how quickly this game can change,” Gayle said after delivering a 130-run victory for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He reached his hundred off 30 deliveries in the ninth over, before taking it slightly easy for the next few overs.”I wanted to stay there till the end, make sure I bat at least 18 overs, if not all, which I did, I look on that as a point of view, where I try and bat as many overs as possible, get the hundred, and then actually let Dilly [Tillakaratne Dilshan] take charge while I get a break and pick it up back in the end.”Having broken the record for the fastest T20 hundred, the highest individual score in T20 and the most sixes in an innings, Gayle said it was too soon for him to gauge the magnitude of his achievement. “Words can’t explain how I feel, I think later on tonight when I am by myself I can look back and reflect on what I’ve done today,” he said. “I’m grateful, overall from a team point of view, I’m really happy with the win, that put us on top of the table, just one of those innings, one of these days when you come out and things go according to how you want it to.”Aaron Finch, the Warriors captain, watched helplessly as his bowlers, and his own bowling, was ruthlessly taken apart by Gayle. There were no qualifiers in his praise for Gayle. “That was simply the best innings I’ve ever seen,” Finch said. He later joked: “Maybe we should ban him from the game. Maybe he’s too good, he hits it too far.”Virat Kohli, Royal Challengers’ captain, was left “speechless”. “No words. I cannot ask for anything more as a captain,” Kohli said after the game. “I’m privileged that I watched it here today live. All the people who came to the stadium today also should feel honoured that they got to see one of the best innings ever.”Dilshan, who partnered Gayle through most of his assault, was equally awestruck. “I’ve batted with him in the last IPL too and he scored a couple of hundreds. But this was something special,” he said. “In my career this was the first time I saw someone hit the ball so cleanly. I was just standing at the other end and enjoying every bit of it.”It wasn’t just with the bat that Gayle did damage. Asked to bowl the final over of the match – his first chance with the ball this IPL season – he picked up two wickets, before celebrating with his famous Gangnam Style dance. “It was really good to finish off in that particular way, ” he said. “Some people keep on asking, ‘they have seen me do Gangnam Style in international cricket, why not in IPL?’ I thought that was the perfect time to do it, you get a wicket, everything just worked for Chris Gayle today … I’m an entertainer, I try to entertain as much as possible.”With Warriors conceding a record 263 runs – the most in the history of Twenty20s – Gayle was asked whether he felt sorry for the bowler s. “Sometimes I get knocked over first ball, I would love to ask the bowler as well ‘Do you feel sorry for me’. We’re paid to be competitive out there, serious event the IPL, lot of money being spent, you want to put on your best performance at all times.”

ScorecardTim Murtagh called his day in Taunton among the best of his career•Middlesex CCC

There is something impressively businesslike about Middlesex. They came to Taunton with definite Championship credentials. They will expect to return to London by the weekend with that reputation enhanced.They look brisk, vigorous and confident in their good habits, the smart, well-drilled side down from the big city. Fifteen Somerset wickets in 56 overs tend to do wonders for your belief. Fifteen Somerset wickets in 56 overs : such things do not happen.Tim Murtagh, the leading Division One wicket taker with 28 at 15 runs apiece, so far has eight wickets for spit in the match. He has an insistent, all-brushed-up style, swings the ball and, at 31, is logically approaching his peak. He felt so good in himself that afterwards he even described the day as probably the best in his career.Victory against Somerset would take them to the top of the First Division with the LV= Championship not far short of midway and encourage hopes of winning their first title for 20 years when Mike Gatting was at the helm.Gatt would drink to that; in fact, he would probably eat to it as well. He should start tucking in his napkin now because on the evidence of the past two days they have a good shout. If there is disarray and dismay south of the Thames, there is organisation and stability to the north of it.When the West Country tyro, Jamie Overton, completed the opening day well on the way to a career-best 6 for 95, he had been the only Somerset quick to make much of an impression on a pitch which, although green, did not – as Overton related – do as much as Somerset expected. Then when Middlesex bowled, it presumably did considerably more than they ever imagined.Murtagh did not find as much swing as he can, nor Toby Roland-Jones as much bounce, nor James Harris as much fortune (certainly first time around), but backed up by committed fielding they took hold of the match within a few hours in a manner that Taunton crowds, more used to run gluts, have rarely witnessed in recent seasons.For a brief period, it seemed as if Middlesex might even win inside two days as they enforced the follow-on with a lead of 195. Memories of Somerset’s failure to beat Warwickshire when Marcus Trescothick failed to enforce the follow-on last month were still strong.Then Somerset had already bowled 65 overs and Trescothick insisted afterwards that he had no regrets: the bowlers were tired and the pitch was flat. On this occasion, it was a no-brainer; Somerset’s first innings had only lasted 45 overs so exhaustion did not come into it and there was enough encouragement to keep Middlesex’s bowlers interested.That prospect of a two-day finish was removed by a crisp half-century from Peter Trego, with Jos Buttler in subdued support, but they remain 83 runs in arrears. Even Tractor resorted to heavy irony as Trego’s flurry brought Roland-Jones falling to the floor in his follow-through. “On the way, on the way,” he roared. Trego had also put up most resistance in Somerset’s first innings before he was ninth man out, having a blast at Neil Dexter.Murtagh never let Somerset’s top order rest. After reaping 4 for 28 first time around, he followed up with 4 for 18 with the new ball to leave Somerset tottering at 35 for 5 by the 11th over.Arul Suppiah, was lbw without scoring and is yet to reach 20 in six knocks; Alviro Petersen, who will soon be heading off for the Champions Trophy, was averaging 82 in the Championship, but Murtagh has picked him off for 0 and 4 here. James Hildreth and Lewis Gregory also succumbed to Murtagh in both innings, Hildreth at slip, Gregory lbw, the same dismissals twice in a few hours.It was the sort of beautiful late afternoon that Taunton delivers as invitingly as anywhere on the county circuit, the sunshine and blue skies enhanced by the fraternal nature of the crowd, but two old Somerset boys had seen enough as they headed for the exit, walking sticks a swinging. “They should bring back Rosey,” burred one of them. If they weren’t exactly angry they were certainly, to resort to an old Somerset phrase, a bit begrumpled.Suitably, they were walking through the Brian Rose gates at the time, named in honour of their former director of cricket who stood down at the end of last season because he was weary of finishing second – or because he knew this Somerset side was beyond its best.If his replacement, David Nosworthy, is to gain the same affection, the old boys muttered, he would be advised to cut down on the management speak to explain what looks likely to be a rare Somerset failure in front of their own supporters. They don’t like too much of that around here.

ScorecardWith nine required of the final over, promising fast bowler Ehsan Adil conceded just six to help Faisalabad Wolves win a thriller against Lahore Lions and reach the final of the Faysal Bank Super Eight T-20 Cup in Lahore.Though the first ball of Adil’s over went four, and the next was a wide that reduced the equation to four off five balls, Adil kept his cool. The second legitimate ball of the over produced a wicket as Sohail Ahmed, who threatened to take the game away, was dismissed after mistiming a pull. Another wide was bowled, followed by two dot balls as the No. 9 Adnan Rasool failed to connect.That made it three required off two. Rasool missed a third ball in a row, and decided to attempt a bye, but with the non-striker not responding, both batsmen were at the bowler’s end when the wicketkeeper broke the stumps. The final ball of the match left No. 11 Aizaz Cheema needing to take three, and he too failed to connect and was run out by the keeper Mohammad Salman, giving Wolves the game.Wolves didn’t seem to have a defendable target after they opted to bat, posting 125. Opener Farrukh Shehzad slashed Aizaz Cheema between gully and point for a boundary, followed by a dashing drive through extra cover, to take nine of the first over as the openers put on 22. Misbah ul-Haq (19) and Khurram Shehzad (27) put on 45 for the third wicket, with the Wolves passing 100 in the 16th over with the help of Imran Khalid’s cameo of 20 off 15 balls.At the halfway stage, Lions were favourites, given Wolves’ moderate total, and that Lions had seven cricketers with international experience in their ranks, including the Twenty20 national captain, Mohammad Hafeez.The Lions announced their charge with three boundaries off the first over from openers Ahmed Shehzad and Nasir Jamshed. Shehzad fell to a brilliant catch behind by Salman with the score on 13. Jamshed (46) and Hafeez (36) put on a solid 57-run partnership, and Lions looked comfortably on course to overhaul the Wolves’ total.A double-strike by Adil in the 11th over brought Wolves back into the game, as he removed Kamran Akmal and Ali Azmat. From being 81 for 2 in 10 overs, Lions ended up losing seven wickets for 38. Once Jamshed was run out by Samiullah with the score on 99, the Wolves’ smelt the possibility of victory. Sohail Ahmed’s 19 kept the Lions in the hunt, but Adil’s superb final over handed Wolves the victory.
Scorecard
Sialkot Stallions raced into the final after a thrilling victory over Rawalpindi Rams at the Gaddafi Stadium. The match went into the final over with Rawalpindi needing eight runs, but the vastly experienced Naved-ul-Hasan picked up three wickets to bowl Rams out and clinch a three-run victory. Stallions, defending champions of Faysal Bank Super Eights, will take on Faisalabad Wolves in the final on Sunday.After opting to bat first, Stallions got off to a steady start with the openers adding 23 off 21 before Shakeel Ansar (7) was trapped lbw by Yasir Arafat, followed by the dismissal of Shahid Yousuf (16). In a bid to improvise, Naved-ul-Hasan was promoted up in the order, but the idea backfired and Naved was back in hut with 15 off 22 balls. By the end of 15th over, Stallions were in trouble at 96 for 5.Their captain Shoaib Malik drove five boundaries to compile 44 off 35 balls to take Stallions past 100 and Mansoor Amjad hit 18 off 11 with the help of a six over long-off to propel Stallions to a respectable total of 139.Rams, in reply, lost three wickets within five overs with 31 runs on board. It was Umar Amin (24) along with Umar Waheed who kept them the game from slipping away with a defiant 37-run stand. Sohail Tanvir chipped in with three boundaries for his 17 off 16 balls but wasn’t enough to keep the chase on course, leaving Waheed (44 not out) to resist all alone in the middle with no batsman providing him support, which left Rams two runs short.

Salman Butt said he was “grateful” to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for hearing the appeal against his ICC bans and retained hope that he could return to playing the sport that “runs through me in veins and my blood.”Butt’s hearing in Switzerland followed that of his former team-mate Mohammad Asif yesterday and the pair will now have to wait to hear that outcome as to whether their bans – 10 years for Butt and seven for Asif with suspended periods – will be lifted or reduced. A decision is expected in three weeks but could take longer. CAS hearings are held in private.”I am grateful to the CAS that they have allowed me this opportunity to appeal this sentence,” Butt said in a statement released after a day-long hearing. “Since September 2010, until now, I have not been able to play any meaningful game of cricket: to coach or to even be involved in the administration of the game.”I love cricket: it is something that runs through me in my veins and my blood. I await the decision of the CAS. It means so much to me. I truly pray that they can change it for me by reducing the sentence.”Butt’s lawyers added in a statement: “We are certain that the Panel will consider our legal submissions and the material facts of this case carefully when reaching their verdict. There is only one outcome that can be positive for Salman and us – he must be allowed to play cricket now. We can then say that justice has truly been served.”Butt, Asif and Mohammad Amir – who is not contesting his ban – were exposed by a sting in 2010 over bowling deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test against England. The trio were also jailed after a criminal trial in the UK.

Mohammad Hafeez has suggested that the decision to leave out R Ashwin, India’s leading limited-overs spinner, for the first Twenty20 helped Pakistan. India opted to go in with left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja ahead of Ashwin for the match in Bangalore, which Pakistan won by five wickets.”This is the combination, they knew very well what they (wanted), Ashwin was not there in this team,” Hafeez said. “So our plan was that if we play out the new ball, then their spinners are not world-class; I know Yuvraj is in great form, but when you don’t have a world-class spinner then we can dominate.”Jadeja bowled 2.4 overs, including the final one of the game, and was taken for 29 runs, and he contributed only two runs with the bat. “It was a surprise for us that they didn’t play [Ashwin], at the end we are happy that we won the game.”Dhoni, though, defended the decision saying Ashwin was more of a threat with the new ball. “Ashwin has been one of our main bowlers, he had to bowl in the first six overs a lot,” Dhoni said. “Once we had three seamers, we wanted to give Jadeja a chance also, and once the field has opened up in the last two games Ashwin has also gone for runs, [though] he has bowled beautifully in the first six overs.”Only one of Pakistan’s top seven batsmen was a left-hander, another reason Dhoni provided for the decision to leave out the offspinner Ashwin. “They had lots of right-hand batsmen, and if we needed an offspinner, we had Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina. If we needed an option of a left-arm spinner in case Yuvi had a bad day, we wouldn’t have any option in the XI [if Jadeja was left out].”This was only the second Twenty20 match Ashwin has missed since his debut against Zimbabwe in 2010; the other one was the meaningless fixture against England in the World Twenty20. Ashwin himself was philosophical about his omission: “Even Fernando Torres has to sit out for Chelsea.”

As the 16,512 spectators at Adelaide Oval rose to honour Michael Clarke at the end of the day he became the first man in Test history to pass 200 four times in a year, one broadcast observer marvelled at the captain’s sense of timing, as records and milestones tumble to his bat at all the right moments. “It’s almost like he’s a news editor,” he gasped.This was indeed another note-perfect occasion for Clarke, a man and a cricketer growing in stature among the game’s greats with every day at the batting crease. He reached two major marks with the sort of timing once the exclusive preserve of his friend and mentor Shane Warne, smashing Morne Morkel for five boundaries in an over to go to 150, then reaching a double-hundred the ball before Michael Hussey passed his own century, cause for hugs and photos all round.But there is substance, thought and courage too behind a face at ease with the cameras. As in Brisbane, Clarke was rewarded for a tremendous attacking intent from a position of some uncertainty, this time 3 for 55, but here in Adelaide the innings had the added advantage of taking place on the first day to push Australia into a position in which they already appear the only side capable of victory.Clarke has not yet had the time or the inclination to ponder on the wider context of what he achieved on Thursday, or this year, but he is certain that the greatest source of his success is an aggressive attitude. In this he resembles the famed remark of the French General Ferdinand Foch who offered the following thought on his battlefield situation: “My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I will attack.” Having twice had Australia three down for not many, South Africa have twice been turned back with impressive force.”Through my career that’s probably the only way I’ve had success, when you look at the innings I’ve made big scores, it’s exactly that – the counter-attack, being positive, playing my natural game,” Clarke said. “And there’s risk there. As Graeme [Smith] and AB [de Villiers] reminded me a lot of times today I had a lot of arse, there’s no doubt about that but you need it in this game. I remember playing England through the Australian summer a couple of years ago and I couldn’t make a run, so when you’re scoring runs you want to cash in.”It’s really nice to be making runs, and the down side to this great game is when you’re not, you find it really hard to find your next run, and that happens through your career. That’s happened a lot for me, and I’ve got dropped, and when I came back from getting dropped I said I want to make the most of the good days and that’s what I feel like I’m doing.”Apart from culture, intent is one of the buzz words for Australia’s cricketers these days. Clarke and David Warner resolved not to waste time trying to survive on an Adelaide pitch that offered true bounce and comfortable pace. Their bravery delighted the coach Mickey Arthur just as much as the assembled crowd. “The one thing Davey and I spoke about during the week was our intent, the way I tried to play in Brisbane and the way we were going to try to play today was exactly that, we wanted to be positive,” Clarke said. “We both took that approach today, we were going to see the ball and react and not worry too much about the result, if we get a good ball, we get a good ball.”Partnerships such as those with Warner and Hussey have been a critical element of Clarke’s success since he became captain. The one major innings in that time that was an entirely solo effort – the 151 against South Africa in Cape Town – was ultimately inconsequential because no one else was able to help Clarke, resulting in a middling team tally around a brilliant individual one.”A lot of credit needs to go to Huss and Davey as well, the way they played up the other end today made my life and my job a lot easier,” Clarke said. “If I didn’t score there was no stress. That gets forgotten a lot of the time: how important your partner is when you have success.”Another partnership that has helped Clarke is the one that he has established with his wife Kyly. They married in a lavish but secret ceremony during the winter, and the wry note made by Ed Cowan in Brisbane that Clarke does not have a Test batting average since becoming a husband remains true – he has now scored 483 runs for the series without being dismissed, and he gestured with passion in Mrs Clarke’s direction as he strode towards 200.”I know she’s supporting me, that’s the type of woman she is,” Clarke said. “She’s getting into her cricket and it’s great she can be here in Adelaide. It’s special for everybody [who] has thrown their support behind me, and the people that are close who’ve been there through good days and bad days, whether that’s on the field with cricket or off the field with my personal life and things that have happened through my life, especially with my family. I think when you perform well, my dedication is certainly to my team-mates first and foremost, but also through the people who’ve stood by me through good and bad days.”

ScorecardHaris Sohail scored a brisk half-century to give Sialkot Stallions a target their bowlers defended comfortably against Abbottabad Falcons. The 34-run win was Sialkot’s fourth success in five matches and they were second in Group A.Sialkot’s top order had stumbled – they were 69 for 3 in the 11th over – before Sohail made an unbeaten 62 off 43 balls to lead his team to 164. Sohail had a 79-run stand for the fourth wicket with his captain Shoaib Malik. Fast bowler Junaid Khan was Abbottabad’s best bowler, with figures of 3 for 22.Abbottabad overcame the early loss of Mir Azam to reach 79 for 1 in the 13th over but they failed to accelerate from that platform. They lost four wickets for 14 runs to slip to 110 for 6 and eventually ended on 130.
ScorecardMultan Tigers rose to the third spot in Group A with a 17-run win against Karachi Zebras in Lahore. Put in to bat, Multan lost opener Sohaib Maqsood in the second over, but made steady progress for the next seven overs as Zain Abbas and Gulraiz Sadaf scored 48 together. But Karachi’s Faraz Ahmed and Haaris Ayas picked up two wickets apiece to reduce Multan to 87 for 5 in the 15th over. It was then that Saeed Anwar Jr launched a counterattack, hitting 39 off 22 and sharing a 52-run stand with Kashif Naved to help the team finish on a high.Multan carried the momentum into their bowling, with Mohammad Irfan striking off the first ball of the innings. Two more wickets went down in the next two overs, pushing Karachi onto the back foot. Rahat Ali and Anwar Jr shared seven wickets between them to derail the chase and help Multan win comfortably in the end.
ScorecardBahawalpur Stags maintained their winning run with an 11-run win against Hyderabad Hawks, who are yet to register a victory. Bahawalpur were set back early after choosing to bat, but healthy contributions of 40, 34 and 37 from Ali Haider, Usman Tariq and Bilal Khilji ensured the team crossed the 150-run mark. Haider was the most aggressive – his 40 came off 26 balls with five fours and a six.In their chase, Hyderabad had made brisk progress to 44 when Ataullah struck in the sixth over to remove Sharjeel Khan. Other Bahawalpur bowlers soon joined in; they kept the scoring under tight control and picked up the wickets as the pressure got to the batsmen. Twenty-eight were required off the last two overs, but Kamran Hussain and Mohammad Talha both picked up two wickets each in the last two overs to seal the win.
ScorecardFaisalabad Wolves kept their unbeaten record intact with a narrow two-wicket win against Karachi Dolphins at the Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore. Chasing 148, Faisalabad were in danger of running out of batsmen when 19 were required off 16 balls and only two wickets were left. But Misbah-ul-Haq remained unbeaten on 72 and scored 17 out of 19 in the ninth-wicket partnership to help Faisalabad cross the line off the last delivery.Misbah took only 47 balls to score his runs and hit four boundaries and three sixes in the innings. He didn’t receive much support at the other end, 17 being the second highest score.Earlier, Karachi were cruising on 85 for 1 in the 12th over after a half-century stand between Khurram Manzoor and Khalid Latif. However, both batsmen were out in the space of three balls off Ehsan Adil’s bowling and that slowed down the charge. Adil picked up four wickets as Karachi were restricted to 147.
ScorecardA big-hitting century partnership between the Rawalpindi Rams openers helped their team to overhaul Lahore Eagles’ total with ease – they won by eight wickets with more than five overs to spare. Naved Malik and Awais Zia hit 11 sixes between them and put up 135 runs in 12.1 overs to make short work of the 156-run target. Malik scored 77 off 41 balls and Zia, 54 off 36, but both fell with the target in sight.Lahore Eagles had chosen to bat and with the help of contributions from everyone in the batting order, had scored 155. Yasir Arafat was the most successful bowler for Rawalpindi with 3 for 37.
ScorecardIn a clash that pitted the bottom-rung Group A teams against each other, Islamabad Leopards beat Quetta Bears by five wickets at the Gaddafi Stadium. This was Islamabad’s first win in five matches, while Quetta remained winless after the same number of games.Islamabad chose to bowl, and the decision paid off straightaway as seamer Iftikhar Anjum struck in each of his first three overs to leave Quetta reeling at 17 for 3 in the sixth. Apart from getting the wickets, Iftikhar kept a tight leash on the scoring, having conceding only 2.75 runs per over by the end of his spell. The other bowlers too kept things tight for the most part, and struck with regularity to restrict Quetta to 111 for 7.The chase was off to a poor start too, as Islamabad lost opener Shan Masood for a golden duck and No. 3 Moed Ahmed for 1, but the rest of the top and middle order produced cameos and that was enough to propel their team past their meagre target with nine balls to spare.

Zimbabwe squad for World Twenty20

Brendan Taylor (capt), Vusi Sibanda, Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Malcolm Waller, Elton Chigumbura, Craig Ervine, Graeme Cremer, Ray Price, Kyle Jarvis, Chris Mpofu, Richard Muzhange, Brian Vitori, Prosper Utseya, Forster Mutizwa
Non-travelling reserves: Regis Chakabva, Tendai Chatara, Shingirai Masakadza, Tinotenda Mutombodzi, Richmond Mutumbami

Richard Muzhange, the 21-year old Mid West Rhinos medium-pacer, is the only new face in the 15-man Zimbabwe squad for the ICC World Twenty20 to be led by Brendan Taylor.Brian Vitori, the left-arm fast bowler, is the only other member of the squad yet to play a Twenty20 international, although he’s already represented his country in Tests and ODIs.”This is one of the hardest squads we’ve had to pick for a while because we had quite a few players competing for places,” Heath Streak, the Zimbabwe bowling coach, told ESPNcricinfo. “Most of these guys are the ones that played against South Africa and Bangladesh in the tri-series. They did well there and we hope they will do well at the World Twenty20. We are in camp now and we will be playing some warm up matches there.”Ray Price, the left-arm spinner, missed the tri-series against South Africa and Bangladesh with an injury but has now returned to the squad.Zimbabwe are in Group C in the World Twenty20, along with South Africa and hosts Sri Lanka. They will play the opening game of the tournament against the hosts on September 18 in Hambantota.