ISLAMABAD – Shahid Afridi’s Royals defeated Virender Sehwag’s Badrutt’sPalace Diamonds in the second and final T20 encounter by eight wickets tocomplete an emphatic 2-0 whitewash.

This was after Sehwag’s XI scored a formidable 205/5 in 20 overs. Inreply, the Royals cantered home with 20 balls to spare, courtesy of ablistering unbeaten 90 by Jacques Kallis.

Earlier, the Diamonds once again won the toss and elected to bat first onan artificial turf carpet laid out on the perfectly laid out snowfield.However, they faced a couple of early jolts and were reduced to 15/2 after2 overs. From thereon once again it was skipper Virender Sehwag (48) andAndrew Symonds who got together and steadied the ship.

Symonds in particular had a subdued start but as his innings progressed hekept depositing the ball beyond the boundary ropes comfortably. Courtesy ofhis unbeaten 67 and a late blitzkrieg by Mohammad Kaif (57) the Diamondsreached a challenging total of 205. Abdur Razzaq was once again the mostsuccessful bowler with three wickets while Daniel Vettori and Grant Elliotchipped in with a wicket each.

Chasing a stiff target of 206, the Royals lost opener, Matt Prior early,with the scoreboard on 28. But from thereon the mighty Jacques Kallis stolethe show with a brilliant 90 of just 37 deliveries.

In his dazzling knock, Kallis slammed 13 fours and four sixes. Along withhim, man of the series – Owais Shah was once again on song with a quickfire43 of just 21 balls. Bowling on the artificial surface proved difficult forthe bowlers as most of them leaked runs at an economy rate of more than 10per over.

Former India bowler Zaheer Khanlink> and T20 world cup starJoginder Sharma were the most economical bowers for the Diamonds.