November 5, 2001	Monday	haba’an 18, 1422

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KARACHI, Nov 4: Opener Ghulam Ali stroked a fluent century but a catastrophic middle-order collapse allowed PIA to let ADBP off the hook on the penultimate day of the Patron’s Trophy Grade-I match at the National Stadium Sunday.

Ghulam Ali, resuming at 87 in PIA’s second innings score of 185 for two, became one of the five Rao Iftikhar’s victims after contributing 107 as PIA crashed out for 289. The national carrier lost their last seven wickets for 66 runs.

Iftikhar was well supported by Tahir Mughal who chipped in with four for 74 to finish the match with eight for 126. Iftikhar, who took two for 32 in the first innings, bagged five for 88 for match figures of seven for 120.

The bankers, who conceded a 47-run first innings lead and are now chasing 337 for victory, closed the day at 116 for three with former Test batsman Atif Rauf batting confidently on 61. His 104-ball knock is studded with six hits to the fence.

With both the teams now left to play for pride, the final day’s proceedings promises to be exciting as ADBP will be needing 221 runs while PIA will be hoping to get the remaining seven wickets.

Ghulam Ali, who scored 40 and 90 in the previous game against Custom and then contributed 27 in the first innings, hammered 107 off 194 balls with 16 well-timed boundaries. He was pinned in front of the stumps while playing across the line.

After Asif Mujtaba departed on the 16th ball of the day with four runs added to the total, Ghulam Ali and Faisal Iqbal carried the score to 223 before the collapse, which has now become a routine for PIA, struck.

Iftikhar, after trapping Ghulam Ali, sent back Zahid Fazal on the first ball to find himself on the hat trick which was avoided by Ahmad Zeeshan Malik. But the double-success opened floodgates as PIA batsmen came and went.

Faisal Iqbal, who was helplessly watching the procession from the other end, decided to cut lose and was finally the eighth man out but not before scoring an invaluable 58.

His 110-ball innings spiced seven hits to the fence.

If PIA failed to set a stiffer target for ADBP, they, to an extent, succeeded in prolonging their innings by slowing the momentum of scoring rate as evident from Fazle Akbar’s 68-ball 12 and 23-ball one by Ahmad Zeeshan.