KARACHI: Hyderabad and Multan were the biggest beneficiaries on Saturday as they both joined Faisalabad and Sialkot in the semi-finals of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-II Cricket Tournament.

Hyderabad trounced Quetta by an emphatic margin of 218 runs at the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad to set up a three-day last-four clash with Multan at the Multan Cricket Stadium from Tuesday.

Multan booked their place by virtue of a nine-wicket victory against Bahawalpur at the Multan Cricket Stadium. Multan topped Group ‘A’ with 24 points with Sialkot finishing second after suffering a stunning seven-run defeat against Azad Jammu Kashmir at the Dring Stadium in Bahawalpur.

Faisalabad, meanwhile, warmed up for their semi-final versus Sialkot here at the National Stadium by chalking up an eight-wicket victory over Abbottabad at the same venue. Misbah-ul-Haq’s side comfortably took the top spot in Group ‘B’ with 31 points.

Hyderabad, who were languishing in fourth place before start of the last round of matches, doubled their points’ tally to 18 thanks to off-spinner Nasir Awais who grabbed match bag of 13 wickets for 113 runs, including figures of seven for 43 as Quetta mustered a miserable 102 all out in their second innings.

Abbottabad’s upcoming all-rounder Sohail Akhtar blasted 83 off 100 balls with nine fours and four sixes to delay Faisalabad’s expected win. Resuming at 197-8, Abbottabad were finally dismissed for 253 in the second innings with the ninth-wicket partnership between Sohail and skipper Khalid Usman (12) worth 66 runs.

Slow left-armer Ahmed Safi captured five wickets for 55 runs.

Needing 44, Faisalabad lost two wickets to lanky speedster Ahmed Jamal before sealing their third success.

Bahawalpur also offered a belated fight before Multan won. Starting their second innings at 98-3, Bahawalpur reached 285 with all-rounder Imranullah Aslam making 65 and Mazhar Bashir 47.

Multan then knocked off the small target to end the game.

Despite a magnificent innings of 121 (138 balls, 10 fours) from the left-handed Ayaz Tasawwar, Sialkot could manage only 200 while chasing a modest 208 against Azad Jammu Kashmir.

Scores and results on Saturday (final day of three):

Fifth and final round:

Group ‘A’:

At Dring Stadium, Bahawalpur: Azad Jammu Kashmir beat Sialkot by seven runs.

AZAD JAMMU KASHMIR 287-8 in 83 overs (Usman Maroof 72, Azhar Mughal 67, Ikram Hussain 50, Naved Malik 49; Mansoor Amjad 4-89, Ahsan Hafeez Bhatti 4-103) and 138 in 55 overs (Naved Malik 47, Abdul Shakoor 43; Adil Raza 4-29, Mansoor Amjad 4-53); SIALKOT 218 in 60.2 overs (Ayaz Tasawwar 76, Naved Sarwar 47, Ahsan Hafeez Bhatti 26, Haider Ali 21, Naved Malik 5-21, Faisal Khaliq 2-19, Abdul Shakoor 2-64) and 200 in 58 (Ayaz Tasawwar 121, Haider Ali 26; Salman Irshad 4-16, Mohammad Amir 2-17, Naved Malik 2-41).

At Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan: Multan beat Bahawalpur by nine wickets.

BAHAWALPUR 190 in 63 overs (Imranullah Aslam 49, Jawwad Ahmed 47, Mudassar Nazir 28, Adeel Basit 26; Ali Usman 6-50, Sohaib Maqsood 2-8, Sadaif Mehdi 2-55) and 285 in 78.4 overs (Imranullah Aslam 65, Mazhar Bashir 47, Mudassar Nazir 37, Maaz Taimia 36, Jahanzaib Manzoor 33; Sadaif Mehdi 4-81, Sohaib Maqsood 2-16); MULTAN 460-8 in 83 overs (Zain Abbas 142, Sohaib Maqsood 97, Abdul Rehman Muzammil 90, Imran Rafiq 36, Waqar Hussain 28; Mazhar Bashir 3-99, Imranullah Aslam 3-117) and 19-1 in 3.4 overs.

Group ‘B’:

At National Stadium, Karachi: Faisalabad beat Abbottabad by eight wickets.

ABBOTTABAD 103 in 36.5 overs (Riaz Kail 23, Nasir Khan 21 not out; Naseer Akram 5-30, Ahmed Safi 2-10, Waqas Maqsood 2-24) and 253 in 65.4 overs (Sohail Akhtar 83, Hammad Ali Shah 62, Riaz Kail 23; Ahmed Safi 5-51, Waqas Maqsood 3-67, Naseer Akram 2-60); FAISALABAD 313 in 83 overs (Misbah-ul-Haq 133, Abdul Samad 47, Khurram Shehzad 39, Ali Shan 25; Sohail Akhtar 4-94, Ikramullah Khan 3-32, Khalid Usman 2-82) and 45-2 in 11.5 overs (Abdul Samad 20 not out; Ahmed Jamal 2-28).

At Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad: Hyderabad beat Quetta by 218 runs.

HYDERABAD 220 in 60.1 overs (Shoaib Leghari 46, Azeem Ghumman 35, Nauman Ali 29, Mohammad Awais 29, Mir Darya Khan 26; Bakhtiar Shah 4-52, Gohar Faiz 2-45, Hamal Wahab 2-57, Sher Ai 2-63) and 238 in 44.3 overs (Mir Darya Khan 90, Rizwan Ahmed 44, Haris Khan 23, Zeeshan Gul 20; Hamal Wahab 7-91); QUETTA 138 in 59 overs (Bismillah Khan 31, Mohammad Ilyas 27, Rameez Raja 25; Nasir Awais 6-70, Nauman Ali 4-49) and 102 in 36.1 overs (Abdul Rauf 47 not out; Nasir Awais 7-43, Nauman Ali 2-23).

Final standings

(Tabulated under played, won, lost, drawn, points):

Group ‘A’

Multan 4 3 0 1 24

Sialkot 4 2 1 1 21

Bahawalpur 4 2 2 0 19

Azad Jammu Kashmir 4 1 3 0 9

Larkana 4 1 3 0 9

Group ‘B’

Faisalabad 4 3 0 1 31

Hyderabad 4 2 2 0 18

Abbottabad 4 1 1 2 15

Dera Murad Jamal 4 1 1 2 9

Quetta 4 0 3 1 0

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2017