KARACHI: Lahore Blues beat Fata by nine wickets in their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy second-round match in Abbotabad on Tuesday to register their first victory in the ongoing season of the first-class tournament. The remaining three matches of the round ended up with draws.

Trailing by 47 runs at the start of the fourth and final day at the Abbotabad Cricket Stadium with six wickets in hand, Fata were bundled out for 214, thanks to a five-wicket haul by Lahore Blues pacer Ali Shafiq.

Pakistan international Khus­hdil Shah was the highest run-scorer for Fata with 73, but after he was dismissed by Shafique, Fata’s batting line-up collapsed. Lahore Blues chased down the 41 run target in less than nine overs as captain Imran Butt scored 22 not out off 24 balls.

Karachi Whites, who would have come into the last day of their match against Faisalabad at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi with high hopes of winning it, were defied by resilient knocks by Ali Shan (46 off 150) and Mohammad Huraira (39 off 97) after their team was asked to follow on.

Faisalabad started their day at 63-6 before being bowled out for 122 as Karachi pacer Ghulam Mudassar completed a five-wicket haul. The Sarfraz Ahmed-led Karachi then asked Faisalabad to follow-on with the deficit still hefty given that the former had scored 434-5 (decl.) in their first innings.

In their second innings, though, Faisalabad batted with much more responsibility and were 103-1 by the end of the day and the match.

At Rawalpindi’s Shoaib Akhtar Cricket Stadium, Multan posted 286-7 as a response to Peshawar’s first-innings total of 263 as the match ended in a draw.

Sharoon Siraj got the most runs for Multan with 70 off 143 balls while opener Zain Abbas added 62 off 103. Pacer Abbas Afridi was the best Peshawar bowler with four wickets to his name.

There was no play between Lahore Whites and Rawalpindi at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore due to rain before the match was called off.

Scores in brief:

Match drawn between Lahore Whites and Rawalpindi

LAHORE WHITES 407-3 in 100.3 overs (Ali Zaryab Asif 182, Ahmed Shahzad 102; Kashif Ali 2-88, Munir Riaz 1-75); RAWALPINDI 232-1 in 63 overs (Abdul Faseeh 113 not out, Ashfaq Ahmed 51 not out; Mohammad Irfan 1-74)

Match drawn between Karachi Whites and Faisalabad

KARACHI WHITES 434-5 in 114 overs (Sarfaraz Ahmed 128 not out, Asad Shafiq 108 not out; Mohammad Ali 2-82, Khurram Shahzad 2-124); FAISALABAD 122 in 52.4 overs (Ali Shan 36, Mohammad Huraira 19; Ghulam Mudassr 5-35, Aftab 3-23); FAISALABAD 103-1 in 49 overs (Ali Shan 46 not out, Mohammad Huraira 39; Nauman Ali 1-15)

Match drawn between Peshawar and Multan

PESHAWAR 263 in 82.3 overs (Kamran Ghulam 117, Abbas Ali 34; Siraj Ud Din 4-45, Majid Ali 3-41); MULTAN 286-7 in 90 overs (Sharoon Siraj 70, Zain Abbas 62; Abbas Afridi 4-84, Mohammad Ilyas 2-52)

Lahore Blues beat Fata by nine wickets

FATA 140 in 49.1 overs (Mohammad Salman Khan 40, Mohammad Wasim Khan 23; Hunain Shah 3-22, Hussain Talat 2-28); LAHORE BLUES 314 all out 73.3 overs (Waqas Ahmed 53, Qasim Akram 51; Aimal Khan 3-82, Akif Javed 3-85) & FATA 214 in 56 overs (Khushdil Shah 73, Mohammad Salman Khan 71; Ali Shafiq 5-34, Kashif Bhatti 2-34, Waqas Ahmed 2-71); LAHORE BLUES 41-1 in 8.2 overs (Imran Butt 22 not out; Akif Javed 1-13)

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2023