KARACHI, Dec 8: Faisalabad finally celebrated their first Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship victory this season on Sunday when they defeated Islamabad by six wickets on the fourth and final day of their match at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.

Debutant paceman Shehroz Raza bagged the last two Islamabad wickets to finish with fine figures of six for 61 in 22.5 overs after the visitors resumed their second innings at the overnight tally of 207-8.

Set a modest target of 153, the hosts cruised home in 53 overs by reaching 156-4 and moving from their previously bottom spot to the crucial fourth place in Group-II. The top four teams in each of the two pools would be qualifying for the Super Eight stages, while the remaining three outfits will fight it out in the ‘Bottom Six Teams’ event.

In the other Group-II fixture, Lahore Shalimar perilously came close to pulling of victory against Quetta at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The hosts’ young skipper Umar Siddique had the rare distinction of scoring century in each innings of the same match.

After making 143 in the first innings on Friday, the left-handed Umar scored an undefeated 119 (206 balls, 21 boundaries) as Lahore Shalimar reached 256 after resuming at 82-3 on Sunday.

Quetta captain Gohar Faiz excelled with a career-best match bag of 10 for 151 in role as a pace bowler. He picked up 4-83 in the second innings.

Needing an impossible 296, the visitors just avoided being defeated when they went off the field with the scoreboard reading 99-7.

Lahore Ravi remained rooted at the base of Group-I despite picking up their first points in the competition after Rawalpindi denied them victory at the LCCA Ground.

Rawalpindi, who lead the standings with 28 points, were in dire straits at 93-4 on the third evening but maiden first-class tons from the bats of Haseeb Azam and Muzammil Nizam guided them to safety.

The visitors, were 69 runs behind on the first innings, eventually reached 383-6 with the left-handed Haseeb, the 27-year-old older brother of Pakistan discard Hammad Azam, contributing 113 (251 balls, 13 boundaries) and Muzammil scoring an unbeaten 101 (144 balls, 15 fours).

Awais Zia also played a key role with 48 while adding 85 for the fifth wicket with Haseeb. Haseeb and Muzammil then put on 110 before Zahid Mansoor (36) helped Muzammil in sharing an unbroken stand of 95 for the seventh wicket.

Abbottabad pocketed three points after a career-high 186 (330 balls, 23 fours and one six) from skipper Waqar Orakzai enabled them to post 491-9 declared in response to Bahawalpur’s 437 in the drawn tie at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium in Abbottabad.

Batting a second time, Bahawalpur finished at 217-3 declared when the teams mutually agreed to call of the game.

In matches ending on Saturday, Karachi Whites crushed Hyderabad by innings to remain atop Group-II with 32 points, while reigning champions Karachi Blues were humbled by Peshawar by 118 runs in the Group-I clash in Peshawar.

Teams who participated in the latest round of matches will now meet each other in the National One-day Cup on Tuesday.

Scores and results on Sunday (final day of four):

Group-I:

At LCCA Ground, Lahore: Match drawn.

RAWALPINDI 330 in 94.3 overs (Awais Zia 83, Muzammil Nizam 60, Babar Naeem 48, Naved Malik 36; Bilawal Iqbal 5-72, Tanzeel Altaf 3-55, Qaiser Ashraf 2-58) and 383-6 in 111 overs (Haseeb Azam 113, Muzammil Nizam 101 not out, Zahid Mansoor 52 not out, Naved Malik 48, Awais Zia 48; Tanzeel Altaf 3-74, Bilawal Iqbal 2-94); LAHORE RAVI 399 in 119.3 overs (Wahab Dar 114, Muntazir Mehdi 72, Akhlaq Butt 47, Bilawal Iqbal 44, Yousuf Ali 34, Jahangir Mirza 31; Akhtar Ayub 3-69, Nasir Malik 3-100, Haseeb Azam 2-97).

At Abbottabad Cricket Stadium, Abbottabad: Match drawn.

BAHAWALPUR 437 in 123.5 overs (Rehan Rafiq 97, Faisal Mubashir 94, Abdul Basit 85 not out, Imranullah Aslam 36, Zahir Siddiqui 36; Aziz-ur-Rehman 3-102, Shakeel Shah 3-107, Salman Saeed 2-56) and 252-3 declared in 52.3 overs (Mohammad Yasir 85, Faisal Mubashir 81); ABBOTTABAD 491-9 declared in 131 overs (Waqar Orakzai 186, Khalilullah 69, Mohammad Naeem 50, Rehan Afridi 49, Adnan Younis 48, Salman Saeed 32 not out; Imranullah Aslam 3-105, Afraseem Hussain 2-67, Abdul Rehman 2-100).

Group-II:

At Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad: Faisalabad beat Islamabad by six wickets.

ISLAMABAD 194 in 70 overs (Ali Sarfraz 70, Sarmad Bhatti 39; Salman Ali 4-53, Fahim Ashraf 3-37, Naseer Akram 2-49) and 209 in 77.5 overs (Faizan Riaz 42, Afaq Raheem 34, Ali Sarfraz 32, Sarmad Bhatti 31; Shehroz Raza 6-61, Fahim Ashraf 2-27); FAISALABAD 251 in 74.3 overs (Hamza Zaheer 49, Salman Ali 45, Fahim Ashraf 44; Nasrullah Khan 3-46, Kamran Hussain 3-59, Shehzad Azam Rana 2-73) and 156-4 in 53 overs (Shahid Siddique 43, Hamza Zaheer 38; Imad Wasim 2-21).

At Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore: Match drawn.

LAHORE SHALIMAR 357 in 83.2 overs (Umar Siddique 143, Agha Salman 141; Gohar Faiz 6-68, Arun Lal 3-91) and 256 in 71.4 overs (Umar Siddique 119 not out, Kashif Mahmood 38, Mohammad Saeed 32, Salman Ali 31; Mohibullah 4-43, Gohar Faiz 4-83); QUETTA 318 in 122.4 overs (Abdullah Jan 78, Shahzad Tareen 70, Taimur Ali 59, Umar Qasim 33; Agha Salman 3-34, Mohammad Saeed 3-40, Mohammad Bilawal 2-64, Mohammad Irfan 2-86) and 99-7 in 24 overs (Farhan Khan 34; Agha Salman 2-9, Mohammad Irfan 2-26).