January 07, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 16, 1427

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KARACHI, Jan 6: Splendid centuries by youngsters Fawwad Alam and Fahad Iqbal enabled Karachi Urban make a grand recovery to reach 333 for eight against Karachi Harbour on the opening day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship Gold League tie at the National Stadium here on Saturday.

Fawwad, the 21-year-old talented left-hander who made a lot of impression in the Twenty20 Cup tournament last month, struck 110 in 231 minutes.

The right-handed Fahad, the 20-year-old younger brother of Test batsman Faisal Iqbal, scored 107 – his maiden century in five first-class matches – while adding 222 in 218 minutes with Fawwad after Karachi Urban had the top four batsmen with just 39 runs on the board.

Karachi Harbour skipper Hasan Raza, who lost the toss, must be cursing himself for dropping a simple catch in the slips off paceman Tanvir Ahmed before Fawwad had opened his account.

But apart from costly miss, Karachi Harbour could not make any impression on the Karachi Urban fifth-wicket pair. Fawwad laced his 175-ball knock with 18 boundaries while Fahad stroked 18 fours and one six during his 172-ball innings.

Both of them went in successive overs while the total remained stationary on 261. But after their departure, wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed, who is batting on 32, ensured Karachi Urban pass the 300 mark in their first innings.

The best of the Karachi Harbour bowlers was Rajesh Ramesh. The tall medium-pacer finished with four for 88 in 25 overs. Part-time off-spinner Afsar Nawaz chipped in with two crucial wickets including that of Fahad.

Scoreboard

KARACHI URBAN (1st Innings):

Shadab Kabir lbw b Ramesh 17

Khalid Latif b Ramesh 5

Naumanullah c Amin b Ramesh 10

Ariz Kamal b Tanvir 1

Fawwad Alam lbw b Tahir 110

Fahad Iqbal c and b Afsar 107

Sarfraz Ahmed not out 32

Mansoor Ahmed c Amin b Afsar 17

Anwar Ali Khan c Amin b Ramesh 16

Faraz Ahmed not out 4

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-5, W-2, NB-3) 14

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 92 overs) 333

FALL OF WKTS: 1-10, 2-30, 3-31, 4-39, 5-261, 6-261, 7-293, 8-320.

TO BAT: Uzair-ul-Haq.

BOWLING (to-date): Tanvir Ahmed 19-3-68-1 (1w); Rajesh Ramesh 25-7-88-4 (1w); Imran Javed 11-1-31-0 (2nb); Tahir Khan 19-2-59-1; Nauman Alvi 12-2-52-0; Afsar Nawaz 5-1-17-2; Hasan Raza 1-0-9-0.

KARACHI HARBOUR: Asif Zakir, Khurram Manzoor, Saeed bin Nasir, Hasan Raza, Afsar Nawaz, Imran Javed, Amin-ur-Rehman, Tahir Khan, Rajesh Ramesh, Tanvir Ahmed, Nauman Alvi.

UMPIRES: Iftikhar Malik and M. Akbar Khan.

MATCH REFEREE: Naeem Ahmed.

OFFICIAL SCORER: Muhammad Ahsan.