27 February 2004	Friday	06 Muharram 1425

LAHORE, Feb 26: A magnificent unbroken partnership of 246 between Abdul Razzaq and Kamran Akmal carried Lahoreto a remarkable five-wicket victory over Rawalpindi in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match at the LCCA Ground on Thursday.

Razzaq, the 24-year-old Test-rounder, struck 126 and wicket-keeper Kamran 99 as the home side achieved victory after being set a target of 294 in 60 overs. The result was even more astounding because at one stage, Lahore were reeling at 48 for five, with Test reject Azhar Mahmood taking four of the wickets. Azhar, in fact, sent back three batsmen in his fifth over.

But Razzaq, who joined Kamran, had other ideas as he gradually seized the initiative from the Pindi side. Both grew in stature as the partnership started to develop and became increasingly aggressive as the overs went by. In the end, Lahore won with 13.2 overs to spare.

Razzaq completed his century with his solitary six when he smashed leg-spinner Shiraz Khalid over the long-on boundary. The all-rounder also punctuated his brilliant 106-ball innings with 16 fours.

Kamran just failed to reach his hundred when he failed to score the winning run off the bowling of left-arm paceman Najaf Shah. The wicket-keeper, who has played in Tests and ODIs, cracked 16 fours and a six in his knock of 162 balls.

Earlier, Rawalpindi who had gained a 34-run lead on thefirst innings were all out for 259 after resuming their second innings at 138 for two. The damage was done by paceman WasimKhan who finished with five for 72.

Scoreboard

RAWALPINDI (1st Innings) 494 (Babar Naeem 149, Azhar Mahmood 75, Yasir Arafat 64; Irfan Fazil 4-119).

LAHORE (1st Innings) 460 (Salman Butt 137, Taufiq Umar 86; Yasir Arafat 4-118).

RAWALPINDI (2nd Innings, overnight 138-2):

Babar Naeem c Kamran b Khalil 22

Afaq Rahim c Kamran b Wasim 14

Ashar Zaidi c Kamran b Irfan 65

Shiraz Khalid c Salman b Wasim 60

Bilal Asad lbw b Khalil 15

Naveed Qureshi b Wasim 0

Azhar Mahmood c Kamran b Wasim 54

Yasir Arafat lbw b Saqlain 9

Junaid Zia handled the ball 1

Mohammad Shahbaz lbw b Wasim 0

Najaf Shah not out 0

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-3, NB-12) 19

TOTAL (for all out 64.2 overs) 259

FALL OF WKTS: 1-23, 2-57, 3-150, 4-171, 5-174, 6-206, 7-244, 8-251, 9-252.

BOWLING: Wasim Khan 15.2-0-72-5; Mohammad Khalil 16-3-56-2; IrfanFazil 11-1-50-0; Abdul Razzaq 13-3-40-0; Saqlain Mushtaq 8-2-27-1; Imran Farhat 1-0-7-0.

LAHORE (2nd Innings):

Imran Farhat c Naveed b Azhar 7

Taufiq Umar lbw b Azhar 20

Saleem Elahi c Azhar b Yasir 6

Salman Butt b Azhar 0

Kamran Akmal not out 99

Adil Nisar c Naveed b Azhar 0

Abdul Razzaq not out 126

EXTRAS (B-3, LB-5, W-5, NB-24) 37

TOTAL (for five, 47.4 overs) 294

FALL OF WKTS: 1-21, 2-36, 3-36, 4-36, 5-48.

BOWLING: Azhar Mahmood 16-3-82-4;Yasir Arafat 16-0-93-1; NajafShah 8.4-0-49-0; Shiraz Khalid 5-0-34-0; Ashar Zaidi 2-0-13-0.

RESULT: Lahore won by five wickets.

UMPIRES: Afzaal Ahmed and Islam Khan.

MATCH REFEREE: Khateeb Rizwan.