The 2023–24 National T20 Cup was a Twenty20 domestic cricket competition played in Pakistan. It was the 20th season of the National T20 Cup, with the tournament starting from 24 November 2023 and the final being played on 10 December 2023. Sindh were the defending champions, winning the 2022-23 edition.
Overview
National T20 2023-24 began from 24 November and lasted until 10 December. 18 teams took part in the tournament which was played across four venues – National Bank Stadium, UBL Sports Complex, HPC Oval Ground and NBP Sports Complex – in Karachi.
Broadcasting All matches played at National Bank Stadium were broadcast on PTV Sports and ARY ZAP in Pakistan, and live-streamed on YouTube in overseas territories. Double-header matches at National Bank Stadium began at 15:00 PKT and 20:00 PKT, with toss conducted at 14:30 PKT and 19:30 PKT respectively.
Free Entry The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced free entry for spectators for all matches being played at National Bank Stadium. The Hanif Mohammad, Javed Miandad and Fazal Mahmood enclosures were accessible for spectators.
The 63-match tournament was structured to open with group stage games, which were to be followed by Super Eight matches. A total of 32 group stage matches were played from 24 to 28 November. 18 participating teams were put in four groups.
Teams Meetup The first set of fixtures saw Lahore Whites face Larkana and Karachi Blues face Peshawar at NBP Sports Complex in Group A. In Group B, Karachi Whites played against Islamabad and Hyderabad played against DM Jamali at UBL Sports Complex. Rawalpindi took on Abbottabad and Faisalabad faced Bahawalpur at National Bank Stadium for Group C and lastly, for group D, HPC Oval Ground hosted the Multan-Sialkot clash and FATA-AJK game.
Super 8 Stage The top two teams from each group progressed to the Super Eight stage, which was played in a round-robin format from 1 to 8 December.
Final Following the Super Eight stage, the top four teams qualified for the semi-finals. Both semi-finals were played on 9 December at National Bank Stadium, at 15:00 PKT and 20:00 PKT respectively. The final was played at the same venue on 10 December. The toss took place at 19:30 PKT and the first ball was bowled at 20:00 PKT.
Karachi Whites won the 2023–24 National T20 Cup by defeating Abbottabad by nine runs in the final. The match was held at National Bank Stadium, Karachi.
Background
This was the first edition of the tournament played since the PCB 2014 Constitution was reinstated. The previous edition of National T20, which featured six sides, was won by Sindh who clinched their maiden title after defeating defending champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by eight wickets. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lost out on securing a hat-trick of titles after winning both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 editions.
Format The 18 qualifying teams were divided into four groups (with Group A and Group B consisting of five teams and Group C and Group D consisting of four teams), with the top two teams in each group advancing to the Super 8 round. In this stage, the qualifying teams were split into one group of 8. The top four teams in the Super 8 qualified for the knockout stage, which consisted of two semi-finals and a final.
Teams Group AGroup BGroup CGroup DKarachi Blues Lahore Whites Larkana Peshawar QuettaHyderabad Dera Murad Jamali Islamabad Karachi Whites Lahore BluesAbbottabad Bahawalpur Faisalabad RawalpindiAzad Jammu & Kashmir FATA Multan Sialkot
Squads Group A + Karachi BluesLahore WhitesLarkanaPeshawarQuetta Saifullah Bangash (c & †) Jahanzaib Sultan Mohammad Taha Kashif Ali Hasan Mohsin Saqib Khan Arish Ali Khan Afnan Khan Bahadur Ali Abdur Rehman Mohammad Asghar Rumman Raees Fazal Subhan Syed Waleed Azeem Arbaz Khan Saad Nasim (c) Ahmed Shehzad Tayyab Tahir Ali Zaryab Muhammad Akhlaq (†) Saad Khan Umar Akmal Ahmed Bashir Ahmed Daniyal Mohammad Amir Khan Mohammad Naveed Muneeb Wasif Mohammad Irfan Mohammad Ramiz Jnr Kamran Afzal Zahid Mehmood (c) Umar Khalid Israr-ul-Haq Mohammad Aqeel Ghulam Raza Mohsin Ali Mohsin Raza (†) Sabit Ali Mushtaq Ahmed Imtiaz Ali Asif Ali Jnr Ali Haider Faraz Aziz Ali Asghar Mehrooz Ali Mohammad Umar Iftikhar Ahmed (c) Sahibzada Farhan Adil Amin Israrullah Maaz Ahmad Sadaqat Nabi Gul Aamer Azmat Imran Khan Mohammad Imran
Mohammad Ilyas Abbas Afridi Niaz Khan Sajid Khan Usman Tariq Azam Khan Mohammad Haris (†) Jalat Khan (c) Bismillah Khan (†) Abdul Bangalzai Gohar Faiz Abdul Hanan Najeebullah Syed Zainullah Mohammad Javed Nadeem Ahmed Salahuddin Obaid Ullah Sanaullah Faheem Rasheed Bakhtiar Shah Bohir Aman
Group B Dera Murad JamaliHyderabadIslamabadKarachi WhitesLahore Blues Nasir Khan (c) Basit Ali Usama Khalil Zubair Khan Mengal Mohammad Deen Mohammad Ayaz Abdul Rauf Shoaib Ahmed (†) Fahad Hussain Hidayatullah Saleem Mal Zahoor Ahmed Mohammad Shahid Mohammad Ikram Aftab Ahmed Rizwan Mehmood (c) Mohammad Suleman Salman Khan Tayyab Ali Shah Daniyal Hussain Rajput Fardeen Sheikh Rao Sajid Akbar Khan (†) Mustafa Nasir Asim Jutt Jawad Ali Asad Malik Majid Asghar Sher Afzal Zulfiqar Ali Haris Rauf (c) Rohail Nazir (†) Sarmad Bhatti Ali Imran Hassan Nawaz Sudais Ulfat Muhammad Musa Mohammad Arham Umair Afridi Arsal Sheikh Shayan Sheikh Mohammad Hammad Salman Khan Hammad Siddique Azan Tariq Farmanullah Khan Asad Shafiq (c) Ziaullah Ammad Alam Omair Bin Yousuf Khurram Manzoor Danish Aziz Azam Khan (†) Mohammad Hasan (†) Habibullah Sohail Khan Ghulam Mudassar Aftab Ibrahim Anwar Ali Ashir Qureshi Arif Yaqoob Hussain Talat (c) Imran Butt Umar Siddiq Rizwan Hussain Mohammad Nawaz Junaid Ali (†) Shawaiz Irfan (†) Asif Ali Hunain Shah Umaid Asif Asfand Mehran Kashif Bhatti Salman Irshad Babar Azam Hashim Ibraheem
Group C AbbottabadBahawalpurFaisalabadRawalpindi Yasir Shah (c) Sajjad Ali (†) Afaq Ahmed Anees Azam Mohammad Arif Khalid Usman Aitizaz Habib Khan Mehroz Rasheed Israr Hussain Fayyaz Khan Aqib Khan Ahmed Khan Adil Naz Khayyam Khan Fakhar Zaman Kamran Ghulam Arshad Iqbal Mohammad Junaid (c) Ali Imran Mohammad Sudais Mohammad Faizan Zafar Mohammad Wasim Bhatti Mohammad Shahrivar Abdul Hadi (†) Mohammad Naveed Yousaf Aun Shehzad Mohammad Shahid Mirani Husnain Majid Mohammad Asif Ali Mohammad Adeel Ur Rehman Shayan Khalil Syed Khurram Ali Shah Asif Ali (c) Mohammad Shehzad Irfan Khan Abdul Samad Abubakar Khan Ali Shan (†) Taimoor Sultan Muhammad Faizan Mohammad Saleem Waqas Maqsood Sadaqat Ali Asad Raza Arham Nawab Ahmed Safi Abdullah Bilal Mehdi Shadab Khan (c) Umar Amin (vc) Abdul Faseeh Nasir Nawaz Rehman Khan Mubasir Khan Zeeshan Malik Umair Masood Raza-ul-Mustafa (†) Sheraz Khan Mohammad Faizan Jahandad Khan Mehran Mumtaz Umer Khan Haider Ali Yasir Khan Zaman Khan Kashif Ali
Group D Azad Jammu & KashmirFATAMultanSialkot Naveed Malik (c) Nadeem Khalil Usman Maroof Mohammad Haider Syed Hashim Shah Syed Faraz Faizan Saleem Basit Ali Raja Farhan Khan (†) Daniyal Allah Ditta Amir Hamza Usman Yousaf Aqib Liaqat Awais Akram Mohammad Shehzad Khushdil Shah (c) Usman Shinwari Salman Khan (†) Kashif Noor Azaz Khan Asif Ali Mohammad Sarwar Mohammad Riaz Rehan Afridi (†) Asif Afridi Maaz Khan Irfanullah Shah Akif Javed Shahid Aziz Samiullah Jnr Sharoon Siraj (c) Zain Abbas Haseebullah Khan (†) Aamer Yamin Mohammad Imran Mohammad Shehzad Sharjeel Khan Sohaib Maqsood Mohammad Sadaqat Tahir Hussain Ali Usman Zeeshan Ashraf Sirajuddin Faisal Akram Ali Majid Mohammad Rizwan (c) Mohammad Huraira Bilal Asif Usman Khalid Amad Butt Mirza Tahir Baig Salman Khan (†) Ashir Mehmood Zaki Shaz Khan Mohammad Abbas Sohaibullah Asad Ali Hamza Nazar Shoaib Akhtar
Group stage The group stage will consist of four groups (with Group A and Group B consisting of five teams and Group C and Group D consisting of four teams), played as a single round-robin format. The top two teams in each group will progress to the Super 8 stage.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Super 8s After the group stage, the top two teams in each group will progress to the Super 8 stage which will be played as a single round-robin with the top four teams advancing to the knockout stage. Points Table
Matches Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Knockout stage
Semi-finals
Final
Awards and statistics Most runs Player Team RunsSahibzada FarhanPeshawar492Kamran GhulamAbbottabad451Sajjad AliAbbottabad442Omair YousufKarachi Whites401Iftikhar AhmedPeshawar395 Source: ESPNcricinfo
Most wickets Player Team Wickets Shahab Khan Abbottabad 25 Sohail Khan Karachi Whites 22 Arif Yaqoob Karachi Whites 21 Mohammad Imran Peshawar 20 Iftikhar Ahmed Peshawar 18 Source: ESPNcricinfo
End of season awards Name Team Award Prize Iftikhar Ahmed Peshawar Player of the Tournament Sahibzada Farhan Peshawar Batsman of the tournament Shahab Khan Abbottabad Bowler of the tournament Sajjad Ali Abbottabad Wicket-keeper of the tournament Source: PCB
Prize
The winning team of the tournament received a prize money of PKR 5 million while the runners-up were awarded PKR 2.5 million.
References
External links Searies home at ESPNcricinfo Searies home at PCB