KARACHI: While Southern Punjab showed great resilience to deny Balochistan victory in Quetta, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa shared honours in the second drawn encounter of the first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy at the UBL Sports Complex here on Tuesday.

The fixture in Karachi was always heading in one direction — an obvious draw — as the pitch held no terror for bowlers of all types. The predicable outcome was achieved an hour earlier when torrential rains just after the teams came off for tea left the entire ground saturated.

When the official announcement was made around 4:00pm, Sindh had collected 81-1 in 30 overs with first-innings hero Omair Bin Yousuf scoring 34 and the elegant left-hander Saad Ali 40 in the unbroken partnership of 77 after the experienced Khurram Manzoor had been trapped by fellow Pakistan discard Imran Khan for four.

Resuming at 296-6, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa closed their first innings at 355-8, with the declaration being made rather surprisingly by stand-in skipper Sahibzada Farhan after only one delivery was bowled in the post-lunch session by Kashif Bhatti.

Kashif, the slow left-armer, grabbed the scalp of Mohammad Ilyas to eventually finish 4-108 in 49.1 overs with energetic paceman Tabish Khan claiming three wickets for 83 runs in 34 overs.

The spotlight on the last day belonged to Zohaib Khan, who extended his overnight score of 70 to 110 without being out. His 244-ball knock lasted 322 minutes and contained 10 boundaries. Young Umar Khan hit 31 as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa eventually finished 121 short of Sindh’s 476-9 declared in the first innings.

By taking six bonus points from this game, Sindh remain in fourth spot while drawing level on points with Southern Punjab and Balochistan with each side having 20. Balochistan, meanwhile, garnered eight bonus points and 13 in all against Southern Punjab to move above Northern, now rooted to the sixth and final place in the team standings after being walloped by an innings and 100 runs inside three days against new leaders Central Punjab (35 points).

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who had picked up 13 points against Northern in last week’s opening round, now have a total of 23.

Southern Punjab, who were asked to follow on by Imran Farhat on Monday, faced no problems despite the fact they were batting on a day four track, that played true throughout the match. In fact, the visitors scored 249 runs for the loss of remaining seven second-innings wickets after resuming at 132-3, before being finally dismissed for 381.

After the departure of Umar Siddique (49) and Imran Rafiq (33), the left-handed overnight pair, Southern Punjab were just six runs in front. But former Test wicket-keeper Adnan Akmal (82 off 113 balls, nine boundaries) and all-rounder Aamir Yamin (61 of 64, eight fours and two sixes) forged a crucial sixth-wicket stand worth 97 priceless runs in 90 minutes.

After Aamir feel to Amad Butt, Bilawal Bhatti (38 off 59, five fours and one six) helped Adnan further Balochistan as the two shared a partnership of 64.

Test leg-spinner Yasir Shah captured three of the wickets to finish with five for 104 in 31 overs.

Results and scores on Tuesday (final day of four):

Second round:

At UBL Sports Complex, Karachi: Match drawn.

SINDH 476-9 declared in 148.5 overs (Omair Bin Yousuf 174, Fawad Alam 100 not out, Asad Shafiq 81, Khurram Manzoor 40, Saud Shakeel 25; Adil Amin 5-81, Sameen Gul 3-50) and 81-1 in 30 overs (Saad Ali 40 not out, Omair Bin Yousuf 34 not out); KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 355-8 declared in 136.1 overs (Zohaib Khan 110 not out, Ashfaq Ahmed 113, Adil Amin 70, Umar Khan 31; Kashif Bhatti 4-108, Tabish Khan 3-83).

At Bugti Stadium, Quetta: Match drawn.

BALOCHISTAN 500-9 declared in 130.5 overs (Azeem Ghumman 163, Imran Farhat 117, Imran Butt 66, Amad Butt 54, Bismillah Khan 32, Yasir Shah 31; Mohammad Irfan 5-131, Bilawal Bhatti 2-104); SOUTHERN PUNJAB 308 in 94.4 overs (Imran Rafiq 110 not out, Umar Siddique 67, Bilawal Bhatti 57, Aamir Yamin 23, Sami Aslam 20; Mohammad Asghar 3-41, Umar Gul 2-31, Taj Wali 2-50, Yasir Shah 2-126) and 381 in 95 overs (Adnan Akmal 82, Aamir Yamin 61, Umar Siddique 49, Shan Masood 45, Bilawal Bhatti 38, Sami Aslam 37, Imran Rafiq 33; Yasir Shah 5-104, Hussain Talat 2-21, Mohammad Asghar 2-104).

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2019