March 19, 2002	Tuesday	Muharram 4, 1423

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KARACHI, March 18: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) reached the final round of the National One-day Cricket Championship after defeating Pakistan Customs by six wickets at National Stadium Monday.

PIA’s fifth successive victory left an intriguing last round match between Customs and Karachi Whites. The winners of the game will go to the second round and will play their matches in Punjab.

On Monday, Customs went down without offering any real resistance. They collected a modest 218 for nine from their 50 overs and had PIA not opted to avail batting practice, the score would have been overhauled much earlier than 45.2 overs.

Such is the strength of PIA that every reshuffle in the batting order pays off. On Monday, Shoaib Malik was sent as opener and he justified the decision by stroking a fluent 57 off 77 balls with five boundaries.

Yasir Hameed, the find of the 2001-02 domestic circuit, stroked 63 with three boundaries off 114 balls. He added 103 for the second wicket with Shoaib after Ghulam Ali had returned at the total of 15.

Later in the order, Asif Mujtaba scored an unbeaten 30 while Yousuf Youhana hit 23 not out off 20 balls. Faisal Iqbal chipped in with 22.

The only salient feature of Customs batting was a 87-run fifth wicket stand between Asim Kamal (63) and skipper Aamir Bashir (51). The left-handed Asim hit four boundaries and two sixes in his 85-ball knock while Aamir’s 75-ball innings included four fours.

Saqlain Mushtaq remained the pick of PIA bowlers with three for 37 from 10 overs. Azhar Mahmood bagged two for 43 while Fazle Akbar finished with two for 52. Wasim Akram was tight, economical and aggressive in his one for 20 off eight overs.