KARACHI: Mohammad Nawaz and Asif Ali joined the swelling list of century-makers in the opening round of matches in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy on Tuesday as Northern held off Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s bid for victory at Abbottabad.

The remaining two first-class fixtures, unsurprisingly, were also drawn with the Sindh-Balochistan game at the UBL Sports Complex in Karachi providing an encounter which bordered on boredom throughout the four days.

At the conclusion of the first round, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were rewarded for their proactive approach at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium with eight bonus points to top the six-team standings with 13 — five points apiece are awarded to both teams in drawn match regardless which of them took the lead on the first innings under the new system devised for this revamped championship.

The Punjab derby between Central and Southern in Lahore saw both sides securing 11 points each, while Sindh obtained nine against Balochistan who got seven.

Northern owed their great escape — after being forced to follow on by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa skipper Mohammad Rizwan on Monday once they conceded a massive first-innings lead of 264 — to the defiant batting of Nawaz and Asif who were among eight batsmen to reach three figures at the start of the season.

Resuming their overnight second innings at 105-2, Northern survived 75 overs on the last day during they scored 328 runs for the loss of four wickets before ending up totalling 433-6.

After Umar Amin (80 off 172 balls, 11 fours and one six) and Rohail Nazir (46) had had denied the home side early wickets, Asif joined Nawaz to share a fifth-wicket partnership of 118. Asif batted in typical aggressive style to thrash 114 from 133 balls with 18 fours and three sixes.

The left-handed Nawaz, who like Asif are among 20 probables named on Monday for the ODI and T20 series against Sri Lanka, brought up his century (100 off 126, 15 fours and two sixes) just before the match was called off, with Northern picking up nine valuable points.

Meanwhile, the bowlers struggled for wickets as the game in Karachi yielded a combined tally of 828 runs in 342.5 overs for the loss of only 14 wickets and a dismal scoring rate of just 2.41, forcing Sindh head coach Azam Khan and his Balochistan counterpart Arshad Khan to defend the tactics.

“Being the first match [of the season] our primary gameplan was to observe how it would be. I mean it would take time to getting use to playing with the Kookaburra ball,” Azam told the post-match media conference. “Of course, there is room for big improvement in all facets of the game because this is a new concept put in pace by the PCB. The pitch here was not conducive as both teams would have hoped for. Anyway, it is early days and we’re expecting the conditions improving as regards the playing surface.”

Arshad, in his post-match comments, expected his side to put up a decent show in the next game. “As a unit it would surely take time for us to gel, given the makeup of our playing squad with players coming from different regions and cities. And although I have no real issues to discuss at this point in time, as a head coach I feel Balochistan has the potential to play excellent cricket in the coming weeks.”

Balochistan added just 164 to their Monday’s score of 191-3 to finish at 355-9 while replying to Sindh’s 473-5 declared when both skippers, Sarfraz Ahmed of Sindh and Balochistan’s Haris Sohail, consented to call off play at 4:00pm.

Imam-ul-Haq, who began the day at 111, was fifth man dismissed, caught behind by Sarfraz off occasional spinner Asad Shafiq for 152 (352 balls, 18 boundaries). Tailender Khurram Shehzad provided some entertainment with a bright 44 not out from 68 balls (six fours and two sixes).

Asad finished with figures of 3-85 in 37 overs with slow left-armer Kashif Bhatti claiming 3-115 in 60 overs while part-timers Fawad Alam and Saud Shakil also chipped in with one wicket each.

Mohammad Yaqoob adds from Lahore: Aided by two vital stands, Central Punjab took a six-run run over Southern Punjab at the Gaddafi Stadium.

Replying to 467 amassed by Southern, Central extended their overnight total from 348-5 to 473 all out with Mohammad Saad (70 off 208 balls, 11 fours) and Faheem Ashraf (56 off 53, nine boundaries) putting on 80 for the sixth wicket.

But Central were still in the minus when their ninth wicket fell sat 426. But Bilal Asif (26) and Waqas Maqsood (20) forged a priceless partnership of 47 to finally take their side in front.

Slow left-armer Mohammad Irfan captured four wickets for 120 runs in 42.1 overs to emerge as the chief wicket-taker for Southern.

In the remaining time available Southern then reached 107-1 with Sami Aslam following up his career-best 243 in the first innings with an even 50 (82 balls, six fours), while taking his match tally to 293 without being dismissed.

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

First round:

At UBL Sports Complex, Karachi: Match drawn.

SINDH 473-5 declared in 169.5 overs (Abid Ali 249 not out, Khurram Manzoor 105, Sarfraz Ahmed 44 not out, Asad Shafiq 37; Yasir Shah 3-127); BALOCHISTAN 355-9 in 173 overs (Imam-ul-Haq 152, Khurram Shehzad 44 not out, Bismillah Khan 26, Haris Sohail 24, Yasir Shah 22, Azeem Ghumman 21; Asad Shafiq 3-85, Kashif Bhatti 3-115).

Points: Sindh 9 (5+4); Balochistan 7 (5+2).

At Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore: Match drawn.

SOUTHERN PUNJAB 467 in 134 overs (Sami Aslam 243 not out, Adnan Akmal 113, Aamir Yamin 64; Waqas Maqsood 4-83, Hasan Ali 3-100, Bilal Asif 2-116) and 107-1 in 30 overs (Sami Aslam 50 not out, Shan Masood 32); CENTRAL PUNJAB 473 in 150.1 overs (Umar Akmal 89, Azhar Ali 73, Mohammad Saad 70, Ahmed Shehzad 63, Faheem Ashraf 56, Kamran Akmal 33, Bilal Asif 26 not out, Waqas Maqsood 20; Mohammad Irfan 4-120, Rahat Ali 3-72, Aamir Yamin 2-68).

Points: Central Punjab and Southern Punjab 11 each (5+6).

At Abbottabad Cricket Stadium, Abbottabad: Match drawn.

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 526-9 declared in 136.4 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 176, Ashfaq Ahmed 106, Adil Amin 73, Iftikhar Ahmed 35, Fakhar Zaman 33, Sahibzada Farhan 29, Junaid Khan 28; Shadab Khan 4-151); NORTHERN 262 in 90.3 overs (Haider Ali 99, Imad Wasim 33, Afaq Raheem 25, Umar Amin 20; Zohaib Khan 3-21, Junaid Khan 3-40, Mohammad Irfan 2-69) and 433-6 in 114 overs (Asif Ali 114, Mohammad Nawaz 100 not out, Umar Amin 80, Rohail Nazir 46, Sohail Tanvir 29 not out, Haider Ali 27, Afaq Raheem 21; Zohaib Khan 2-80).

Points: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 13 (5+8); Northern 9 (5+4).

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2019