Despite of Gulbodin Naib’s sparkling half-ton Afghan Cheetas could not sustain the momentum and slumped to 13-run defeat at the hands of Faisalabad Wolves in the group ‘B’ fixture of Faisal Bank Twenty20 Tournament, in full swing at National Stadium Karachi.

Raising from the 52-run stand between Asif Hussain (30) and Mohammad Salman (32) after opting to bat, Wolves managed a defendable total of 145-5.

In reply, no batsmen expect Naib (68) could show resistance as the events’ solitary abroad side could reach 132-9 in allotted overs with seven of their batsmen failed to reach double figures.

Abdur Rauf edged Cheetas’ openers Najib Taraki (8) and Mohammad Sami (2) to wicketkeeper Salman in the successive overs.

Faisalabad Wolves VS Afghan Cheetas: Naib, Sadiq added brisk 85

But Naib, alongside Karim Sadiq (20) led Cheetas’ fight-back and developed brisk 85-run partnership to put their side in a tenable position.

The pair was separated with the dismissal of Naib, who was caught by Misbah-ul-Haq off Saeed Ajmal. His 42-ball cameo was studded with ten boundaries and a six.

Subsequently, Imran Khalid made Sadiq catch of Mohammad Talha at deep and trapped Samiullah Shenwari (1) in back-to-back overs. Talha later plunked the stumps of skipper Mohammad Nabi for 4.

Najibullah Zadran (7), Nasim Khan (4) and Hamid Hassan (1) got runout in the attempt of taking risky runs.

Prior to this, Naib edged Wolves opener Asif Ali (14) to Sadiq at deep-midwicket to give his side the early breakthrough.

Faisalabad Wolves VS Afghan Cheetas: Salman smashed five fours, a six

The vindictive pair, Hussain and Salman batted briskly and raced the flow of runs on the scoreboard.

Hussain lashed four boundaries in his 32-ball knock before he got runout of direct throw from Shenwari, who later snapped the catch of Salman of Nabi’s delivery. His cameo was studded with four boundaries and a six.

Cheetas’ wicketkeeper Qasim Khan secured the catches of Khalid (11) and Talha (0) off Sadiq and Hamid Hassan’s deliveries respectively and runout Khurram Shehzad for 21.

Faisalabad Wolves will play their last game against Rawalpindi Rams on Friday.