March 05, 2007	Monday	Safar 15, 1428

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LAHORE, March 4: Multan qualified for next season’s Quaid-i-Azam Gold League after emerging champions of Silver League in great style by crushing Islamabad by 269 runs in the final at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad on Sunday.

Set to score 361, Islamabad crashed to 91 all out in the second innings after resuming at 79 for six on the fourth day of the five-day final.

In addition, Multan scooped up all five individual awards worth Rs20,000 each. Kashif Naved won the best fielder prize. Pacer Abdur Rauf, the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 38, was declared the best bowler. Bilal Khilji was adjudged the best batsman for scoring 610 runs. Atiq Ahmed with 26 dismissals won the best wicket-keeper prize while Kamran Hussain’s all-round performance in the final earned him the Man-of-the-Match award.

Multan received a cash prize of Rs300,000 while the runners-up pocketed Rs150,000.

Scoreboard

MULTAN (1st Innings) 211 (Saeed Anwar 71; Rauf Akbar 4-43).

ISLAMABAD (1st Innings) 180 (Naeem Anjum 67; Kamran Hussain 4-50).

MULTAN (2nd Innings) 329 (Azhar Shafiq 97, Bilal Khilji 54).

ISLAMABAD (2nd Innings, overnight 79-6):

Raheel Majeed c and b Kamran 7

Afaq Rahim lbw b Kamran 6

Amir Khan b Rauf 21

Bilal Asad b Rauf 0

Fayyaz Ahmed b Azhar Shafiq 20

Bazid Khan run out 17

Naeem Anjum c Atiq b Azhar Shafiq 0

Ashar Zaidi c Yasir b Azharullah 7

Rauf Akbar c Atiq b Rauf 2

Zohaib Ahmed lbw b Azharullah 0

Saad Altaf not out 5

EXTRAS (LB-5, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (all out, 31 overs) 91

FALL OF WKTS: 1-7, 2-20, 3-23, 4-45, 5-72, 6-72, 7-79, 8-85, 9-85.

BOWLING: Abdur Rauf 13-3-44-3 (1nb); Kamran Hussain 6-3-14-2; Azharullah 9-3-25-2; Azhar Shafiq 4.3-2-3-2.

RESULT: Multan won by 269 runs.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Kamran Hussain.

UMPIRES: Iftikhar Malik and Shakeel Khan.

MATCH-REFEREE: Khateeb Rizwan.

OFFICIAL SCORER: Tahir Suhaib.