KARACHI: Rawalpindi launched their campaign in the Faysal Bank Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship in great style when they comfortably overpowered Hyderabad by six wickets at the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.

Chasing 196, Rawalpindi lost an early wicket — that of hard-hitting opener Naved Malik (3) — before a 98-run stand for the third wicket between skipper Babar Naeem and the Pakistan under-19 batsman Umar Waheed set up the win with both making half-centuries.

Awais Zia, the opener who failed to make much impression during Pakistan’s Twenty20 International series against England last February in the UAE, followed his knock of 87 in the first innings with 31 until he was run out.

But after Awais left, Babar and Umar took the game away from Hyderabad. The left-handed Babar struck five fours and one six in making 68 from 104 balls, while the 18-year-old Umar completed an impressive first-class debut by scoring a 107-ball 51 that contained four boundaries before he was caught behind by Zafar Ali off slow left-armer Nauman Ali who also got rid of Babar.

Umar, incidentally, also fell to the same combination in the first innings after contributing 37.

It was then left to Shoaib Ahmed Minhas (14) and Adnan Mufti (26) to give Rawalpindi full nine points.

Earlier, Hyderabad badly lost ground as they lost the last seven second-innings wickets for 82 runs after resuming the last day of the match at 232-3. Skipper Aqeel Anjum added just four to his Friday score he was trapped in front of the stumps by paceman Nasir Malik for 53.

Rizwan Ahmed — who was involved in a 108-run fourth-wicket stand with Aqeel — also departed in the same manner for 68 (198 balls, six boundaries) to left-arm seamer Sadaf Hussain who toured West Indies with the national side in the first half of 2011 as a replacement for the injured Aizaz Cheema.

Sadaf, who remained wicketless on Friday, claimed two more wickets to finish with three for 81 in 27 overs to cap a fine comeback into competitive cricket after almost 10 months on the sidelines. The 23-year-old ended up match figures of eight for 106, having taken five for 25 in the first innings of this fixture on Thursday.

Nasir Malik was the visitors’ most successful bowler with four for 105 as Hyderabad made 320 in their second innings. The 22-year-old Nasir’s match figures were seven for 166.

Hosts Islamabad earned three points for their 136-run first-innings lead in the drawn fixture against Lahore Ravi at the Diamond Club Ground. The Ravians then averted a certain defeat only due to another fine rearguard action from their captain Adnan Akmal.

Adnan, the Test wicket-keeper who finished undefeated on 86 in the first innings, contributed a priceless 71 (113 balls, nine fours) as his side made a partial recovery to reach 178-8 after being 103-6 at one point in their second innings.

Earlier, the hosts added only eight more runs to their overnight tally of 344-9 with off-spinner Adnan Rasool grabbing the final wicket to finish with a rich-deserved haul of four for 80 in 31 overs.

Meanwhile the two matches that started on Thursday are almost certain to be draw with the weather badly disrupting action in Multan and Lahore.

Play was curtailed to just 47 overs at the Multan Cricket Stadium where hosts Multan moved from 0-0 to 77-3 in response to Quetta’s first-innings total of 210. But the scenes at the LCCA Ground in Lahore drew more bleak pictures as play was possible for the second straight day after Bahawalpur had reached 61-1 in 27.4 overs on day one.

Close of play scores and results on Saturday (final day of four): Group-I: At Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad: Match drawn.

LAHORE RAVI 216 in 61 overs (Adnan Akmal 86 not out, Jahangir Mirza 54, Irfan Haider 31; Shehzad Azam Rana 4-63, Nasrullah Khan 2-22, Rao Iftikhar 2-59) and 178-8 in 58 overs (Adnan Akmal 71, Jahangir Mirza 28; Imad Wasim 2-27, Rao Iftikhar 2-28, Shehzad Azam Rana 2-48); ISLAMABAD 352 in 104 overs (Umair Khan 113, Fahad Iqbal 82, Raheel Majeed 41, Shan Masood 36; Adnan Rasool 4-80, Imran Ali 3-73, Ali Manzoor 2-34).

At Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan (day three): QUETTA 210 in 72.5 overs (Jalat Khan 44, Qaiser Abbas 39, Taimur Ali 38; Rahat Ali 4-62, Mohammad Rameez 2-22, Shahbaz Hussain 2-25); MULTAN 77-3 in 47.3 overs (Ahmed Rasheed 32). Group-II:

At Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad: Rawalpindi beat Hyderabad by six wickets.

HYDERABAD 177 in 59.1 overs (Mir Ali Talpur 70, Nauman Ali 28; Sadaf Hussain 5-25, Nasir Malik 3-61) and 320 in 100.1 overs (Rizwan Ahmed 64, Aqeel Anjum 53, Azeem Ghumman 42, Shoaib Leghari 37, Nauman Ali 35, Sharjeel Khan 32; Nasir Malik 4-105, Sadaf Hussain 3-81); RAWALPINDI 302 in 105 overs (Awais Zia 87, Adnan Mufti 67 not out, Naved Malik 39, Umar Waheed 37, Babar Naeem 30; Zahid Mahmood 3-62, Nauman Ali 3-70, Shoaib Leghari 2-59) and 199-4 in 52 overs (Babar Naeem 68, Umar Waheed 51, Awais Zia 31, Adnan Mufti 26 out out; Nauman Ali 2-74).

At LCCA Ground, Lahore (day three): BAHAWALPUR 61-1 in 27.4 overs (Shahan Akram 39, Usman Tariq 22 not out; Aizaz Cheema 1-18) v LAHORE SHALIMAR — no play on Saturday because of rain.