KARACHI: Captain Misbah-ul-Haq notched up a solid half-century as Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) made steady progress to accumulate 189-4 in their first innings on the opening day of the President’s Trophy Grade-I National Cricket Championship against Habib Bank Limited (HBL) here on Monday.

Misbah, who is also the Pakistan Test and ODI skipper, batted patiently for his 78 to steer SNGPL out of a tight corner with the early dismissals of Mohammad Hafeez, Taufiq Umar and Umar Akmal after Imran Farhat, deputizing for regular HBL captain Younis Khan, opted to field first after winning the toss.

Former Pakistan skipper Younis was stuck up in the chaos that engulfed the city in the strike-like situation and only managed to reach the National Stadium in the second session of play from his residence in Gulshan-i-Hadeed.

In his enforced absence, HBL opening bowlers Umar Gul and Fahad Masood made quick inroads by seeing off Test openers, Hafeez and Taufiq. The left-handed Taufiq was caught behind by Humayun Farhat for a 36-ball 16 before Hafeez followed in the very next over. The Pakistan Twenty20 skipper had a tough time as he managed just one scoring shot — a boundary — when he edged Umar Gul to the safe hands of Usman Salahuddin in the slips.

Umar Akmal then joined Azhar Ali in doubling the total. But Abdur Rehman denied the youngest of the Akmals a good opportunity to score big runs in a bid to win the confidence of the national selectors. The Test slow left-armer, making his first appearance in the competition after a drugs ban forced him to miss the entire league phase, produced a peach of a delivery that pitched around the leg stump area and whizzed past Umar’s lunging bat to hit the off stump.

After the departure of Umar for 16, which left SNGPL wobbling uneasily at 49-3, HBL found it tough to get the next wicket as Misbah and the obdurate Azhar (32 off 123 balls, five boundaries) put on 72 in 114 minutes. But an uncharacteristic attempt to pierce the onside field saw the end of Azhar’s 173-minute vigil with Shan Masood accepting an easy chance at short midwicket to give Ehsan Adil his first wicket.

The left-handed Ali Waqas not only helped Misbah to his 67th half-century in first-class cricket but also the game on an even keel though there is a long way to go in the five-day final. Misbah’s 78 off 177 balls in 251 minutes of concentration includes 11 fours while Ali’s 98-ball 32 in the 68-run unbroken partnership is laced with six hits to the fence.—Khalid H. Khan

Scoreboard

SUI NORTHERN GAS PIPELINES LIMITED (1st Innings): Mohammad Hafeez c Usman b Umar Gul    4 Taufiq Umar c Humayun b Fahad    16 Azhar Ali c Shan b Ehsan    32 Umar Akmal b Rehman    16 Misbah-ul-Haq not out    78 Ali Waqas not out    32 EXTRAS (B-2, LB-1, NB-8)    11 TOTAL (for four wkts, 81 overs)    189 FALL OF WKTS: 1-24, 2-24, 3-49, 4-121. TO BAT: Adnan Akmal, Imran Khalid, Samiullah Khan Niazi, Imran Ali, Asad Ali. BOWLING (to-date): Umar Gul 19-9-32-1; Fahad Masood 17-5-36-1 (6nb); Ehsan Adil 16-8-26-1 (2nb); Abdur Rehman 27-7-77-1; Ahmed Shehzad 1-0-11-0; Asad Shafiq 1-0-4-0. HABIB BANK LIMITED: Imran Farhat, Shan Masood, Ahmed Shehzad, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Usman Salahuddin, Humayun Farhat, Ehsan Adil, Abdur Rehman, Fahad Masood, Umar Gul. UMPIRES: Saleem Badar and Riazuddin. TV UMPIRE: Kamal Merchant. MATCH REFEREE: Ilyas Khan. SCORERS: Mohammad Ahsan and Syed Imran Ali.