KARACHI, March 26: Opener Ghulam Ali stroked a masterly century to single-handedly carry a depleted PIA to a 30-run victory over Sui Gas in the National One-day Championship final round match at the National Stadium Tuesday.
Ghulam, a discarded one-day international but a consistent performer in domestic circuit, scored 131 in PIA’s 266 for nine. Sui Gas, in their turn, played some irresponsible and ill-planned cricket to be dismissed for 236 with eight balls to spare.
Ghulam was the sixth PIA batsman out at the score of 237 in the 46th over. He was instrumental in pulling PIA out of hot waters after they had slumped to 143 for five with off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez picking up three of his four wickets in a penetrative first spell.
Hafeez returned to finish his quota with four for 23 while new ball duo of Abdul Rauf and Wasim Khan equally shared four wickets between them conceding 62 and 64 runs respectively.
Named Man-of-the-Match, Ghulam clobbered 17 boundaries and a six in his 149-ball innings. He had completed his century from 123 balls with 13 boundaries and a six.
Ghulam, who has scores of 53 not out, 28, 67, 74 and 8 before this innings in the tournament, featured in a less than run-a-ball 94-run sixth wicket stand with Mohammad Imran who weighed in with 43 off 48 balls with four boundaries.
Sui Gas could have won the match had they got a game plan. But their batsmen threw their bats around to keep losing wickets at regular interval. There was only one significant partnership when Ali Raza and Shahid Khan put on 78 runs from 104 balls for the seventh wicket.
Left-arm spinner Nadeem Khan tightened the screws around Sui Gas by conceding 35 off his 10 overs. His accurate bowling helped Asif Mujtaba and Mahmood Hamid run through the middle order after Fazle Akbar had snapped up two of the first three wickets.
Salim Mughal top scored with 44 while Ali Raza chipped in with 41. Shahid Khan (37) and Asim Munir (25) were the other notable scorers.