Northern earn draw against KP as Asif & Nawaz hit centuries in Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2019
Asif Ali and Mohammad Nawaz cracked centuries to earn a draw for Northern against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the fourth and final day of their first round match in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium.
Asif Ali and Mohammad Nawaz cracked centuries to earn a draw for Northern against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the fourth and final day of their first round match in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium.
Beginning the proceedings at their overnight score of 105-2, Northern batted the whole day to be on 433-6 in 114 overs at the end. The Imad Wasim-led team were forced to follow-on after being dismissed for 262 in their first innings.
That was in response to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s only knock of 526-9 declared. Asif, a hard-hitting batsman who has represented Pakistan in white-ball cricket, scored 114 – his second century at this level.
The right-hander’s 133-ball aggressive knock was punctuated with 18 fours and 3 sixes, and came in 172 minutes. The left-handed Nawaz also played a stroke-filled innings, hammering 15 fours and 2 sixes to be unbeaten on exactly 100 that came off 126 deliveries. This was his fifth century in first-class cricket.
Asif and Nawaz put on 118 runs for the fifth-wicket. Asif also shared an 86-run stand for the fourth wicket with Umar Amin, another left-handed batsman.
Umar, who started Tuesday with overnight partner Rohail Nazir on 32, went on to make a steady 80 that included 11 fours and a six. Rohail was out for 46. All-rounder Sohail Tanvir also remained not out on an enterprising 29 that came off 35 balls and was studded with 3 sixes and a four.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bowlers toiled all day without much success. Left-arm spinner Zohaib Khan finished with figures of 2-80. Irfan Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Adil Amin took one wicket each. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bagged a total of 15 points as they surpassed the 400-run mark and dismissed the opposition inside 110 overs.
Northern, however, got only eight points with five of them coming from draw, two for crossing the 250-run mark and one for picking up three or less wickets inside 100 overs. In the second round matches starting on September 21, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will play Sindh in Karachi and Northern will meet Central Punjab in Faisalabad.
Scores in brief:
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 526-9 declared, 136.4 overs (Muhammad Rizwan 176, Ashfaq Ahmed 106, Adil Amin 73, Iftikhar Ahmed 35, Fakhar Zaman 33, Sahibzada Farhan 29; Shadab Khan 4-151)
Northern 262 all-out, 90.3 overs (Haider Ali 99, Imad Wasim 33, Afaq Raheem 25, Umar Amin 20; Zohaib Khan 3-21, Junaid Khan 3-40, Irfan Khan 2-69) and after follow-on 433-6, 114 overs (Asif Ali 114, Mohammad Nawaz 100 not out, Umar Amin 80, Rohail Nazir 46, Sohail Tanvir 29 not out; Zohaib Khan 2-80)
In the another encounter of the four-day first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match between Central Punjab and Southern Punjab at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore ended in a draw.
Southern Punjab were 107 for one in their second innings with Sami Aslam and Umar Siddiq batting on 50 and 18, respectively, when the two captains shook hands.
Southern Punjab’s only wicket to fall, and the only batsman to be dismissed twice in this match, was their captain Shan Masood, who scored 32 runs before getting trapped LBW by Zafar Gohar.
Earlier in the day, Mohammad Saad and Faheem Ashraf resumed their innings at 30 and 41, respectively. The pair knitted an 80-run partnership in 116 balls. It was their stand that helped Central Punjab, which started the day at 348 for five, score 473 all-out in response to Southern Punjab’s 467 all-out.
Saad, the first-ever concussion replacement in the history of Pakistan’s first-class cricket, added 29 runs to his overnight score to finish with 70 off 208 balls with 11 fours.
Faheem scored his sixth first-class half-century, hitting nine fours, as he scored runs in 53 balls.
With the Gaddafi Stadium’s pitch deteriorating, the remaining five Central Punjab wickets were picked by spinners. Southern Punjab spinners Mohammad Irfan, the slow left-arm orthodox, and Zahid Mahmood, the leg-spinner, took all of their wickets on Tuesday, returning four for 120 and one for 130 respectively.
Both teams bagged 11 points, five of which came from the draw.
Southern Punjab got five for scoring more than 400 runs inside 110 overs and Central Punjab got four for scoring between 350 and 400. Central Punjab, however, had the upper hand in the bonus bowling points as they were awarded two points for picking six wickets in 110 overs. Southern Punjab managed were given only one point for taking five wickets.
In the second round, which begins from 21 September, Central Punjab faces Northern in Faisalabad and Southern Punjab go to Quetta to play Balochistan.
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