October 31, 2007	Wednesday	Shawwal 18, 1428

KARACHI, Oct 30: A career-best 243 by Usman Saeed was the highlight of the drawn Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship fixture between Rawalpindi and Abbottabad the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.

Usman, a 21-year-old right-hander with two previous first-class centuries, stroked 30 fours and a brace of sixes during his marathon 471-ball innings which lasted just over 10 hours as Rawalpindi reached 601 all out in reply to 376 scored by Abbottabad in their first innings.

Yasir Ali, who surprisingly played a Test against Bangladesh in Multan three years ago as a right-arm medium-pacer, added two more to his overnight score of 127.

His 129 off 285 balls included 14 boundaries and three sixes. The fifth-wicket partnership between Usman and Yasir was worth 256 runs.

Slow left-armer Noor-ul-Amin finished with three for 200 in 61 overs.

The third-round matches start from Thursday.

Scores on Tuesday (final day of four):

At Abbottabad Cricket Stadium: match drawn.

ABBOTTABAD 376 in 120.4 overs (Wajid Ali 75, Fawad Khan 73, M. Junaid Khan 71; Mohammad Ayaz 4-99); RAWALPINDI 601 in 203.4 overs (Usman Saeed 243, Yasir Ali 129, Zahid Mansoor 47, Mohammad Ibrahim 45; Noor-ul-Amin 3-200).