KARACHI, Dec 18: Despite a gusty innings by Fawad Alam, Pakistan Customs were battling to avert follow-on against Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on the penultimate day of the four-day Patron’s Trophy Grade-I match at UBL Sports Complex on Sunday.
Responding to SNGPL’s mammoth first-innings score of 498, Customs were reeling at 237 for six at stumps.
Fawad was batting on a battling 45 while Murtaza Hussain was yet to get off the mark.
Customs squandered a good chance of putting up a fine show with the bat, especially after openers Kashif Siddique (66 with eight fours and two sixes) and Hasnain Abbas (59, five fours) had added 98.
In between, the loss of Afsar Nawaz and Sajid Ali for ducks, derailed Customs’ hopes. Skipper Azhar Shafiq went for 23.
Left-arm spinner Imran Khalid claimed three for 51 in 17 probing overs.
But it was medium-pacer Mahmood Malik who shone with two for 56 on his first-class debut after being sidelined by a back injury for a long time. Mahmood, 28, is a cousin of Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq.
Earlier, paceman Stephen John took two wickets in over as SNGPL were dismissed without adding to their overnight score of 498 for eight.
Scoreboard
SNGPL (1st Innings, overnight 498-8):
Sohail Idrees run out 37
Hafiz Majid b Azam 8
Sufyan Munir b Imran 91
Misbahul Haq c and b Afsar 205
Arsalan Mir lbw b Imran 5
Saleem Mughal c Hanif b Azhar 8
Mohammad Salman c Imran b Azam 72
Imran Khalid lbw b Imran 23
Tariq Mahmood not out 9
Mahmood Malik b John 0
Samiullah Niazi c Hanif b John 0
EXTRAS (B-8, LB-11, NB-21) 40
TOTAL (all out, 167 overs) 498
FALL OF WKTS: 1-38, -88, 3-254, 4-260, 5-271, 6-436, 7-469, 8-496, 9-498.
BOWLING: Imran Ali 41-7-109-3; Stephen John 26-6-74-2; Azam Hussain 38-4-120-2; Murtaza Hussain 37-5-105-0; Azhar Shafiq 12-3-25-1; Kashif Siddiq 10-2-28-0; Fawad Alam 2-0-16-0; Afsar Nawaz 1-1-0-1.
PAKISTAN CUSTOMS (1st Innings):
Kashif Siddique c Saleem b Mahmood 66
Hasnain Abbas c Hafiz b Imran 59
Azhar Shafiq lbw b Sami 23
Afsar Nawaz lbw b Imran 0
Fawad Alam not out 45
Sajid Ali lbw b Mahmood 0
Hanif Malik c Hafiz b Imran 16
Murtaza Hussain not out 0
EXTRAS (B-4, LB-5, NB-19) 28
TOTAL (for six wkts, 80 overs) 237
FALL OF WKTS: 1-98, 2-147, 3-148, 4-179, 5-180 6-221.
BOWLING (to-date): Samiullah Niazi 18-3-62-1; Arsalan Mir 6-3-28-0; Tariq Mahmood 12-1-30-0; Mahmood Malik 17-1-56-2; Imran Khalid 26-7-51-3; Saleem Mughal 1-0-1-0.—APP