KARACHI, Oct 24: Peshawar, the defending champions, were looking down the barrel after being forced to follow-on by Faisalabad in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Gold League fixture at the Arbab Niaz Stadium on Monday.
Having mustered 298 in their first innings in response to Faisalabad’s massive tally of 482, the home team were reeling at 30 for two and still needed 154 to make Faisalabad bat for the second time in the match.
Starting the day at 80 for three, Peshawar continued to struggle despite a gusty innings of 123 by opener Riffatullah Mohmand.
Pacemen Samiullah Niazi and Ahmed Hayat, who shared six wickets between them, then took a wicket each. Pakistan Test batsman completed a miserable match when left-armer Samiullah trapped him leg-before-wicket for a duck. Yasir scored just five in the first innings.
But it was Ahmed Hayat who struck the body blow by clean bowling Riffatullah for only four as Faisalabad, runners-up of the last season, moved in for the final kill.
SCOREBOARD
FAISALABAD (1st Innings) 482 (Ijaz Ahmed Jr 83, Asif Hussain 77, Khurram Shahzad 75, Imran Ali 74, Ahmed Hayat 67; Fazle Akbar 7-84).
PESHAWAR (1st Innings, overnight 80-3):
Riffatullah Mohmand c Misbah b Ahmed 123
Yasir Hameed c Salman b Ahmed 5
Wajahatullah Wasti lbw b Sami 17
Shoaib Khan c Misbah b Asad 6
Akhtar Sarfraz c Salman b Imran 39
Aftab Khan c Misbah b Sami 1
Zulfiqar Jan c Misbah b Imran 8
Aslam Qureshi c Zahid b Ahmed 8
Nauman Habib c Zahid b Khurram 6
Waqar Ahmed lbw b Sami 20
Fazle Akbar not out 16
EXTRAS (B-15, LB-28, NB-6) 49
TOTAL (all out, 92.3 overs) 298
FALL OF WKTS: 1-6, 2-31, 3-54, 4-139, 5-140, 6-157, 7-224, 8-239, 9-252.
BOWLING: Samiullah Niazi 16.3-3-46-3; Ahmed Hayat 21-2-63-3; Imran Khalid 26-3-73-2; Asad Ali 17-2-39-1; Khurram Shahzad 12-3-34-1.
PESHAWAR (2nd Innings, following-on):
Riffatullah Mohmand b Ahmed 4
Yasir Hameed lbw b Sami 0
Aftab Khan not out 4
Wajahatullah Wasti not out 14
EXTRAS (B-3, LB-4, NB-1) 8
TOTAL (for two wkts, 11 overs) 30
FALL OF WKTS: 1-5, 2-7.
BOWLING (to-date): Samiullah Niazi 6-2-10-1; Ahmed Hayat 5-1-13-1.