KARACHI: Abbottabad chalked up their first victory in the Faysal Bank Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship when they trounced Faisalabad by eight wickets in less than two days of play at the Gohati Cricket Stadium in Swabi on Sunday.

After securing a 43-run lead on the first innings by making 135 after resuming the day at 126-8, Abbottabad bowlers, inspired by young leg-spinner Yasir Shah, dismissed Faisalabad for 152 inside 49 overs in the second innings. Yasir, who returned career-best 6-20 in the first innings, repeated the haul; this time claiming six for 49 to finish with match figures of 12-69. Ammar Mahmood hit 10 boundaries in making 59 from 100 balls.

Yasir’s brilliant display upstaged the performance of Faisalabad’s 25-year-old left-arm paceman Waqas Maqsood who bagged his best-ever analysis in first-class cricket by taking two more wickets on Sunday to end up with seven for 40.

Needing 109 to collect maximum nine points, Abbottabad got home in the 28th over by totalling 114-2 with opener Hammad Ali striking 10 fours in his knock of 56, while Waqar Orakzai slammed five boundaries in a 75-ball 38 not out.

Multan reached 84-2 after bowling out Karachi Blues for 410 in their first innings at the Multan Cricket Stadium in Multan. Slow left-armer Zulfiqar Babar snared four more wickets to claim figures of six for 149 in 49.4 overs. Rameez Aziz was the mainstay of the visitors’ batting on day two with a patient 160-ball innings of 59 that included four hits to the fence.

Wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan struck a career-best 154 not out to help hosts Peshawar make 346 after resuming at 245-7 against Sialkot at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar. Rizwan’s 301-ball knock was laced with 20 boundaries.

Sialkot closed the day on 81-1 in their reply.

Rawalpindi earned a first-innings lead of 41 runs before struggling to 59-3 in their second turn against Lahore Shalimar at the Mirpur Cricket Stadium in Mirpur. Test paceman Aizaz Cheema, overlooked for the coming series in South Africa, took all three wickets for 18 runs in nine testing overs.

Lahore Shalimar, earlier, added 110 to their Saturday’s score of 6-1 before being all out for 116. Opener Umar Siddique registered his best first-class score by top-scoring with 46 (145 balls, five fours). Paceman Nasir Malik captured four for 31 while Hammad Azam returned figures of three for 13.

Rizwan Ahmed completed a hat-trick of centuries by contributing 157 in Hyderabad’s first-innings tally of 513-9 declared against Bahawalpur at the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad. Rizwan, who scored century in each in the drawn fixture against Karachi Whites last week, began the day on 75 in his team’s total of 277-3 with Hyderabad skipper Aqeel Anjum resuming on 58.

The partnership between Rizwan and Aqeel yielded 192.

Rizwan adorned his 274-ball effort with 18 fours, while the left-handed Aqeel also managed to strike the same number of boundaries in scoring 104 off 230 deliveries.

Meanwhile, play was abruptly halted at the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad where Quetta had made 39-3 after opting to bat against Islamabad with just 12.2 overs of play possible on day one of this game. Till the time of filing this report no official reason was given for the stoppage.

Close of play scores and result on Sunday (day two of four): Group-I: At Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan: KARACHI BLUES 410 in 123.4 overs (Mohammad Waqas 150, Fakhar Zaman 79, Rameez Aziz 59, Akbar-ur-Rehman 35, Tariq Haroon 27; Zulfiqar Babar 6-149, Sohaib Maqsood 2-39); MULTAN 84-2 in 33 overs (Sohaib Maqsood 39 not out, Saeed Anwar Jr 28 not out).

At Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar: PESHAWAR 346 in 119.4 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 154 not out, Haroon Ahmed 52, Akbar Badshah 32; Bilawal Bhatti 4-101, Nayyar Abbas 3-82); SIALKOT 81-1 in 40 overs (Hafiz Majid Jahangir 40, Naved Sarwar 31 not out).

At Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad (day one): QUETTA 39-3 in 12.2 overs v ISLAMABAD.

Group-II: At Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad: HYDERABAD 513-9 declared in 140.3 overs (Rizwan Ahmed 157, Aqeel Anjum 104, Nauman Ali 56, Mir Ali Talpur 47, Azeem Ghumman 37, Rehan Riaz 33; Ansar Javed 3-68, Zeeshan Khalid 3-128); BAHAWALPUR 60-2 in 22 overs (Usman Tariq 38 not out; Nasir Awais 2-13).

At Mirpur Cricket Stadium, Mirpur: RAWALPINDI 157 in 55.3 overs (Haseeb Azam 46, Jamal Anwar 28; Aizaz Cheema 4-48, Zia-ul-Haq 3-39, Mohammad Irfan 2-39) and 59-3 in 22 overs (Umar Amin 29l Aizaz Cheema 3-18); LAHORE SHALIMAR 116 in 54 overs (Umar Siddique 46; Nasir Malik 4-31, Hammad Azam 3-13, Haseeb Azam 2-36).

At Gohati Cricket Ground, Swabi: Abbottabad beat Faisalabad by eight wickets.

FAISALABAD 92 in 40.5 overs (Yasir Shah 6-20, Aziz-ur-Rehman 2-8) and 152 in 48.2 overs (Ammar Mahmood 59, Usman Arshad 30; Yasir Shah 6-49, Ahmed Jamal 2-37); ABBOTTABAD 135 in 45.5 overs (Yasir Hameed 49; Waqas Maqsood 7-40, Zahoor Khan 2-48) and 114-2 in 27.1 overs (Hammad Ali 56, Waqar Orakzai 38 not out).