Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held a T20 cricket match for peace at Peshawar in the Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium today.
The match in which different former and current Pakistani cricket starts took part, was dedicated to Peace in the kpk province and throughout the country. The stadium was jam packed with about 24000 cricket fans who cheered for each and every ball of the match.
No international cricket has been played in Pakistan since the terrorists attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009. While the last time there was an international cricket match at the Arbab Niaz Stadium Peshawar was in 2006 between Pakistan and India. After almost 8 years when PTI government took the initiative to organize a T20 cricket match here in Peshawar, the cricket fans of the province felt on top of the world. Their happiness reflected in full jam packed stadium where more than 24000 fans turned up to watch this historic match.
The match was played between Pakistan Peace XI versus KPK Peace XI. The caption of KPK Peace XI was former Captain of the Pakistani cricket team, Inzamam-ul-Huq, while Pakistan Peace XI’s Captain was Abdul Qadir. Inzamam-ul-Huq chose to bat first after winning the toss. His team managed to score 180 runs. Salim Malik managed to score 50 off just 27 balls. Pakistan Peace XI however had a great start and the managed to win the match by 5 wickets. Shahid Afridi hit a fastest 50 in just 15 balls.
The teams combination was as follows.
Pakistan Peace XI:
Abdul Qadir(Captain), Shahid Afridi, Yasir Hameed, Kamran Akmal, Rana Naveed, Muhammad Irfan, Shoaib Malik, Hammad Azam, Umar Gul, Shabbir Ahmad, Nasir Jamshed, Anwar Ali, Wajahat Ullah Wasti, Rao Iftikhar, Moin Khan.
KPK Peace XI:
Inzam-ul-Haq(Captain), Imran Nazir, Ahmad Shahzad, Muhammad Yousaf, Ijaz Ahmad, Salim Malik, Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Khalid Latif, Sohail Tanveer, Mushtaq Ahmad, Shoaib Akhtar, Umer Amin, Rashid Latif, Manzoor Elahi.