KARACHI: Former Pakistan Under-19 paceman Zia-ul-Haq couldn’t have hoped for a more appropriate 26th birthday present on Friday when the left-armer tore apart Balochistan batting with a career-best 7-35 as Southern Punjab sealed a clinical 205-run win in their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy fixture here at the National Stadium.

In the other remaining game that went into the fourth day, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wrapped up an emphatic innings and 37-run victory against Sindh while deservingly surging to the top of six-team standings.

Hailing from Vehari — the birthplace of legendary Pakistan fast bowler and former captain-cum-head coach Waqar Younis who is the national side’s current bowling coach — Zia grabbed the last seven wickets that Balochistan to be dismissed for 199, some 40 minutes before the extended one-hour break for lunch and Friday prayers.

Bowling from the University Road End, Zia capitalized on a spot just short of a length and made the Kookaburra ball rise disconcertingly repeatedly to instill fear into the opposing batsmen after Balochistan had extended their overnight tally from 112-2 to 154 without further loss.

At that point it was leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood made the initial breakthrough when the left-handed Imran was undone by a vicious delivery that whizzed past his bat to clean him up for 84 (off 120 balls, 11 boundaries).

Shortly afterwards Zia took over the role of chief destroyer and picked up a wicket in his 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th over before claiming a brace in the 15th and, fittingly, finished off Balochistan’s resistance exactly at 12:20pm by trapping last man Taj Wali with the fourth ball of his 16th over. All of his wickets during his dream spell came in the space of 36 balls for 15 runs.

Zia’s previous best first-class figures of 6-40 were on this very ground for National Bank against Karachi Whites in November 2015.

Apart from Imran, the other notable run-getter for Balochistan was Akbar-ur-Rehman, who contributed a 1-3-ball 57, while Ayaz Tasawwar — the top scorer in the first innings with 76 — was left stranded on 26.

Southern Punjab suffered a setback when their captain Umar Siddique was forced off the field after taking a blow on his right wicket-keeping glove. His replacement Maqbool Ahmed behind the stumps grabbed three catches, including one off rebound when Mohammad Umair in the gulley parried the ball in his direction.

Southern Punjab are third in the standings behind Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (117), Northern (104) with 103 points.

Sindh, meanwhile, are in heaps of problems after their third defeat in seven matches pushed them to the bottom of the table with 66 points as they trail fourth-placed Central Punjab (76) and Balochistan (74). Their latest debacle was swift as they managed just 28 runs to their Thursday’s total of 120-5. Saud Shakeel failed to add to his overnight 50 while off-spinner Sajid Khan captured two of the those five wickets to fall on Friday to finish with 5-49 in 17.4 overs, while young paceman Mohammad Wasim took 3-37.

The eighth round of matches starts from Monday.

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

First XI, seventh round:

At National Stadium, Karachi: Southern Punjab beat Balochistan by 205 runs.

SOUTHERN PUNJAB 256 in 79.5 overs (Agha Salman 50, Zahid Mahmood 45, Zain Abbas 40, Saif Badar 24, Mohammad Imran 24; Taj Wali 3-66, Umaid Asif 2-35, Jalat Khan 2-64, Kashif Bhatti 2-90) and 312 in 96.5 overs (Imran Rafiq 97, Mohammad Umair 59, Saif Badar 53, Zain Abbas 33; Jalat Khan 5-76, Umaid Asif 3-103); BALOCHISTAN 164 in 41.4 overs (Ayaz Tasawwar 76, Bismillah Khan 24, Jalat Khan 20; Aamir Yamin 6-47, Mohammad Ilyas 2-53) and 199 in 55.4 overs (Imran Farhat 84, Akbar-ur-Rehman 57, Ayaz Tasawwar 26 not out; Zia-ul-Haq 7-35, Aamir Yamin 2-50).

At SBP Sports Complex, Karachi: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa beat Sindh by an innings and 37 runs.

SINDH 229 in 81.2 overs (Asad Shafiq 60, Sharjeel Khan 57, Omair Bin Yousuf 24, Hasan Mohsin 24; Irfanullah Shah 5-33, Sajid Khan 3-66) and 148 in 50.4 overs (Sharjeel Khan 51, Saud Shakeel 50; Sajid Khan 5-49, Mohammad Wasim 3-37); KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 414 in 126.5 overs (Kamran Ghulam 166, Rehan Afridi 87, Fakhar Zaman 62, Khalid Usman 25; Mir Hamza 3-89, Tabish Khan 3-104, Shahnawaz Dhani 2-100).

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2020