LAHORE, April 6: Fine bowling by pacemen Shahid Nazir and Asad Ali put Faisalabad in a position of strength in the Pentangular Cup match against Sialkot at the Qadhafi Stadium on Thursday.

Both Shahid and Asad picked up three wickets each as the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Gold League champions struggled to 208 for seven in reply to Faisalabad’s first-innings score of 408 at stumps on the second day of the four-day fixture.

Sialkot’s hopes of avoiding the follow-on now rest with all-rounder Tahir Mughal, who was batting on 37.

Earlier, Faisalabad skipper Misbahul Haq fell just three runs short of scoring a century after resuming the day on 71.

The sixth-wicket partnership between Misbah and Mohammad Salman (52) was worth 144.

Medium-pacer Asim Butt finished with six for 85 as the last four Faisalabad wickets went down for the addition of only 14 runs.

Scoreboard

FAISALABAD (1st Innings, overnight 354-5):

Mohammad Hafeez c Khalid b Tahir 113

Imran Ali b Sarfraz 14

Asif Hussain c Sarfraz b Asim 52

Mohammad Zahid c Kashif b Tahir 43

Misbahul Haq lbw b Kashif 93

Ijaz Ahmed lbw b Asim 11

Mohammad Salman c Majid b Asim 52

Ahmed Hayat c Khalid b Asim 0

Shahid Nazir not out 7

Samiullah Niazi b Asim 6

Asad Ali lbw b Asim 1

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-6, NB-6) 16

TOTAL (all out, 111.2 overs) 408

FALL OF WKTS: 1-19, 2-124, 3-225, 4-230, 5-256, 6-394, 7-394, 8-394, 9-406.

BOWLING: Sarfraz Ahmed 28-4-83-1 (1nb); Tahir Mughal 25-5-97-2 (1nb); Asim Butt 26.2-5-85-6 (1nb); Kashif Dawood 19-4-75-1 (3nb); Abdur Rahman 13-2-58-0.

SIALKOT (1st Innings):

Inamul Haq c Imran b Ahmed Hayat 21

Atiqur Rahman c Imran b Shahid 22

Hafiz Majid lbw b Asad 16

Mohammad Ayub c Salman b Asad 20

Shahzad Malik c Salman b Shahid 26

Abdur Rahman lbw b Shahid 7

Tahir Mughal not out 37

Hafiz Khalid c Sami b Asad 7

Kashif Dawood not out 18

EXTRAS (B-3, LB-2, W-8, NB-21) 34

TOTAL (for seven wkts, 66 overs) 208

FALL OF WKTS: 1-38, 2-75, 3-83, 4-113, 5-139, 6-146, 7-178

BOWLING: Shahid Nazir 14-1-60-3 (10nb); Samiullah Niazi 17-6-45-0 (1nb, 6w); Asad Ali 17-2-58-3 (10nb, 2w); Ahmed Hayat 8-2-13-1; Mohammad Hafeez 8-4-17-0; Ijaz Ahmed Jr 2-0-10-0.

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