KARACHI: Riding on centuries from opener Israrullah and Ashfaq Ahmed, defending champions Peshawar cruised past Rawalpindi by eight wickets to chalk up their fourth victory in the National One-day Regional Cup on Friday.

The result at Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar enabled hosts Peshawar to become outright leaders at the conclusion of the fifth round after Karachi Whites suffered a 77-run defeat against Lahore Blues at the KRL Stadium in Rawalpindi.

In other two matches on Friday, Lahore Whites sealed a thrilling three-run victory against Faisalabad at the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad while Islamabad defeated Fata by a convincing nine-wicket margin at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi.

Israrullah fell just five short of equalling his highest one-day score of 155 as he lashed 14 boundaries and five sixes in scoring 150 from 125 deliveries to help Peshawar easily overhaul Rawalpindi’s total of 302-7 with 15 balls to spare.

Ashfaq, who put on 179 for the second wicket with Israrullah, completed his maiden List A hundred as the 30-year-old right-hander ended up making an 89-ball 102 that contained 10 fours and a brace of sixes.

The in-form Sahibzada Farhan hit 40 (off 66 balls, four fours and one six) while adding 101 for the opening wicket with Israrullah.

Earlier, put into bat by Mohammad Rizwan, Rawalpindi owed their total to a second-wicket stand of 171 between Azhar Ali (104 off 111 balls, nine fours and one six) and Umar Amin (81 off 88, six fours and two sixes). Left-arm paceman Taj Wali captured four wickets for 43 runs in nine overs.

Lahore Blues collected 288-8 after Karachi Whites skipper Asad Shafiq chose to bowl first. Mohammad Saad followed up his maiden limited-overs cricket century on Wednesday by top-scoring with a 106ball 72 (four boundaries) as he and Umar Akmal (64 off 45, 10 fours and one six) shared a third-wicket partnership of 110.

Karachi Whites’ response to the 289-run target fizzled out rather prematurely at 211 in the 44th over despite Akbar-ur-Rehman contributing a splendid 97 with his 104-ball knock featuring 12 boundaries.

Slow left-armer Qaiser Ashraf snared four wickets for 34 runs in 8.3 overs with fellow spinner Khalid Usman taking 3-62 and Bilawal Iqbal 3-33.

Shan Masood missed out on a second consecutive hundred by only 10 runs but the skipper’s uncharacteristic innings of 90 from just 66 deliveries with 16 boundaries enabled Islamabad comfortably chased down Fata’s 224 all out with more than 14 overs to spare.

Shan outscored Abid Ali, who struck an undefeated 96 off 113 balls with the aid of 14 fours, in their opening stand of 142 in the first 21 overs. Faizan Riaz, meanwhile, continued his excellent form in the ongoing competition by remaining unbeaten 35 to follow scores of 53, 68, 95 and 43 in the previous four matches.

Fakhar Zaman, one of the few happy stories of the New Zealand tour, scored 46 off 54 balls (three fours and one six) while Khushdil Shah made 54 (53balls, seven fours) after Fata were asked to bat first. Left-arm spinner Raza Hasan picked up four wickets for 27 runs in nine tidy overs.

In the closest encounter of the day, Faisalabad ended up making 246-9 after Lahore Whites were dismissed for 249 in 48 overs.

Umar Siddique was Lahore Whites’ mainstay with a 99-ball contribution of 77 (eight fours and one six) while Ahmed Shehzad slammed 59 off 50 balls with 10 hits to the fence after Khurram Shehzad, standing in for Misbah-ul-Haq as skipper, opted to field first.

Raees Ahmed was Faisalabad’s main run-getter with an 80-ball 75 (nine boundaries) in only his third one-day appearance.

Friday’s results:

Fifth round:

At Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi: Lahore Whites beat Faisalabad by three runs.

LAHORE WHITES 249 in 48 overs (Umar Siddique 77, Ahmed Shehzad 59, Adnan Akmal 40; Mohammad Imran 2-24, Asad Raza 2-37, Waqas Maqsood 2-40, Fahim Ashraf 2-48); FAISALABAD 246-9 in 50 overs (Raees Ahmed 75, Fahim Ashraf 36, Waqas Maqsood 33 not out, Mohammad Imran 25, Asif Ali 21; Ali Shafiq 3-50, Waqas Ahmed 2-50, Umaid Asif 2-57).

At KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi: Lahore Blues beat Karachi Whites by 77 runs.

LAHORE BLUES 288-8 in 50 overs (Mohammad Saad 72, Umar Akmal 64, Sami Aslam 38, Agha Salman 36, Khalid Usman 20; Danish Aziz 3-54, Zia-ul-Haq 2-66); KARACHI WHITES 211 in 43.3 overs (Akbar-ur-Rehman 97, Danish Aziz 38; Qaiser Ashraf 4-34, Bilawal Iqbal 3-33, Khalid Usman 3-62).

At Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad: Islamabad beat Fata by nine wickets.

FATA 224 in 44.1 overs (Khushdil Shah 54, Fakhar Zaman 46, Mohammad Naeem 45; Raza Hasan 4-27, Nauman Ali 2-44); ISLAMABAD 228-1 in 35.5 overs (Abid Ali 96 not out, Shan Masood 90, Faizan Riaz 35 not out).

At Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar: Peshawar beat Rawalpindi by eight wickets.

RAWALPINDI 302-7 in 50 overs (Azhar Ali 104, Umar Amin 81, Iftikhar Ahmed 38, Taj Wali 4-43); PESHAWAR 305-2 in 47.3 overs (Israrullah 150, Ashfaq Ahmed 102 not out, Sahibzada Farhan 40).

Sunday’s fixtures: Islamabad vs Karachi Whites (Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi); Lahore Blues vs Fata (KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi); Rawalpindi vs Faisalabad (Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad); Peshawar vs Lahore Whites (Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar).

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2018