The 2017–18 National T20 Cup was a

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

domestic

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

competition that was played in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. It was the 14th season of the National Twenty20 Cup in Pakistan. It was originally scheduled to take place in August and September 2017 with eight teams competing. However, in August 2017, the tournament was postponed until November 2017 because of the 2017 Independence Cup and Pakistan's series against Sri Lanka. All the matches were originally scheduled to be played at the

Multan Cricket Stadium The Multan Cricket Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Multan, Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, owned by the Pakistan Cricket Board. The stadium is located off Vehari Road, in the suburbs of Multan. The stadium is home of Pakistan Super League team M ...

and the

Iqbal Stadium Iqbal Stadium (), formerly known as Lyallpur Stadium, is a Test cricket ground in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Constructed in the 1970s, it has hosted 24 Tests and 16 ODIs so far. The venue has also been a key site for Pakistan's domestic cricket tourn ...

. Following the revision of the competition's schedule, all the fixtures took place at the

Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium is a cricket stadium located in Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located close to Pir Meher Ali Shah University and Rawalpindi Arts Council and has an estimated capacity of 18,000. The f ...

. The tournament started on 11 November and was scheduled to conclude on 26 November 2017. However, the semi-final fixtures were initially postponed by the

Pakistan Cricket Board The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), formerly known as Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP), is a sports governing body for cricket in Pakistan responsible for controlling and organising all tours and matches undertaken by the Pakistan ...

(PCB) by one day, following a protest by a religious party, which required more than 8,500 police and troops to remove the protesters. The next day, the PCB postponed the matches because of the "prevailing situation" and said they would announce new dates for the tournament at a later point. The PCB also confirmed that the Super Eight section of the

2017–18 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy The 2017–18 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy was the 60th edition of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan's domestic first-class cricket competition. It was contested by 16 teams representing eight regional associations and eight departments, and took place ...

would also be postponed until a later date. On 27 November 2017 the PCB confirmed that the semi-finals and final would take place on 29 and 30 November 2017, respectively. The defending champions,

Karachi Blues The Karachi Blues cricket team is a cricket team based in Karachi, Pakistan. It participates in first-class cricket, List A and Twenty20 competitions. References Pakistani first-class cricket teams Cricket Team Cricket is a ba ...

, were not invited by the PCB to compete in this year's competition. Ahead of the tournament, the PCB recalled thirteen players who were playing in domestic competitions in England and in the 2017 Caribbean Premier League (CPL). However, shortly afterwards the PCB allowed players to return from the CPL and English domestic fixtures if they wished. In the penultimate group-stage match, between

Lahore Whites Lahore cricket teams, representing the city of Lahore, have competed in Pakistan's first-class cricket tournaments from 1958–59 to 2018–19, and from 2023 to 2024. They have also competed in the national 50-over and Twenty-20 tournaments as ...

and

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

, batsmen

Kamran Akmal Kamran Akmal ( Punjabi, Urdu: ; born 13 January 1982) is a Pakistani cricket administrator, coach and former cricketer, who played for Pakistan as a right-handed batsman & wicketkeeper. He started his international career in November 2002 with ...

and

Salman Butt Salman Butt ( Punjabi:سلمان بٹ; born 7 October 1984) is a former Pakistani cricketer and captain who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2003 and 2010, before getting banned for five years for his involvement in a 2010 spo ...

made an unbeaten opening stand of 209 runs. This was the highest opening partnership in Twenty20 cricket, beating the previous best of 207 runs set by

Joe Denly Joseph Liam Denly (born 16 March 1986) is an English professional cricketer who plays for Kent County Cricket Club. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional leg break bowler who plays as a top-order batsman. Denly played age group cricket ...

and

Daniel Bell-Drummond Daniel James Bell-Drummond (born 4 August 1993) is an English professional cricketer, who plays for Kent County Cricket Club. He has represented England at youth level and has played for the England Lions cricket team at senior level. Primaril ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in the

2017 NatWest t20 Blast The 2017 NatWest T20 Blast was the fifteenth edition of the T20 Blast, a professional domestic T20 competition league in England and Wales run by the ECB. The league consisted of the 18 first-class county teams divided into two divisions of nine ...

. Akmal became the first batsman for Pakistan to score 150 runs in a T20 match. He also hit the most number of sixes in a domestic T20 match in Pakistan and became the third batsman to make five consecutive fifties in T20 cricket. Lahore Whites were the first side to qualify for the semi-finals, when they beat

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

by 27 runs on 21 November 2017. The next day,

Lahore Blues Lahore cricket teams, representing the city of Lahore, have competed in Pakistan's first-class cricket tournaments from 1958–59 to 2018–19, and from 2023 to 2024. They have also competed in the national 50-over and Twenty-20 tournaments as ...

also qualified for the semi-finals, with a five-wicket victory against Islamabad. In the penultimate round of group-stage fixtures,

Faisalabad Faisalabad, formerly known as Lyallpur, is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, second-largest city and primary List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, industrial center of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan ...

beat Peshawar by five wickets to advance to the semi-finals. In the final group-stage match,

Federally Administered Tribal Areas The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...

beat Faisalabad by four wickets to progress to the semi-finals, having a superior

net run rate Net run rate (NRR) is a statistical method used in analysing teamwork and/or performance in cricket. It is the most commonly used method of ranking teams with equal points in limited overs league competitions, similar to goal difference in foo ...

than

Karachi Whites Karachi is the capital city of the province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the largest city in Pakistan and 12th largest in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea ...

, after both teams finished on seven points each. In the semi-finals,

Saeed Ajmal Saeed Ajmal SI ( Punjabi, ; born 14 October 1977) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who played all forms of the game. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who bats right handed. At domestic level in Pakistan he represented Faisal ...

played in his final match of his 25-year-long career, playing for Faisalabad. In the first semi-final, Lahore Whites defeated Faisalabad by 10 runs. In the second semi-final, Lahore Blues defeated Federally Administered Tribal Areas, by 10 runs, therefore ensuring an all-Lahore final. Lahore Blues went on to beat Lahore Whites by 7 wickets in the final.

Squads

Ahead of the tournament, the following players were selected:

Points table

Team qualified for the

Semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

Fixtures

Round-robin

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

----

Final

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:National T20 Cup 2017-18 Pakistani cricket seasons from 2000–01 Domestic cricket competitions in 2017–18 2017 in Pakistani cricket 2017-18 National T20 Cup