KARACHI: Faisal Mubashir came to the rescue of Bahawalpur Stags with a century as the regional side earned an honourable draw against State Bank in their Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship Silver League fixture on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old Karachi-born batsman defend stoutly for seven hours and 42 minutes to hit an unbeaten 104 as the Stags staved off defeat by reaching 262-8 in their second innings after being forced to follow on the other evening at the Dring Stadium in Bahawalpur.

Resuming the last day of the four-day Group-II game at 87-2 and still requiring 164 to avoid an innings defeat, the Stags lost Adeel Basit for a 113-ball 47 and Moinuddin (10) to find themselves struggling at 118-4.

But the right-handed Faisal held firm to strike 14 boundaries during his 375-ball knock.

Slow left-armer Kashif Bhatti followed up his career-best 7-85 in the first innings with figures of 4-71 in 44 overs to finish with match haul of 11-156 in 66.1 overs.

In the matches that were decided inside three days on Monday, Pakistan Television defeated Karachi Zebras by six wickets at the NBP Sports Complex in Karachi; PIA beat Hyderabad Hawks by 10 wickets at Hyderabad’s Niaz Stadium; KRL overwhelmed Quetta Bears by 10 wickets at the KRL Stadium in Rawalpindi; Habib Bank drubbed Abbottabad Falcons by innings and 14 runs at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium in Abbottabad and Sui Southern Gas Company crushed Faisalabad Wolves by innings and 243 runs at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.

The third-round matches start from Friday.

Scores and result on Tuesday (final day of four): Group-II:

At Dring Stadium, Bahawalpur: Match drawn.

STATE BANK 525-6 declared in 133 overs (Naved Yasin 173, Mukhtar Ahmed 144, Aamir Yamin 65 not out, Rizwan Haider 60; Wasim Mustafa 2-129, Zahid Siddiqui 2-132, Imranullah Aslam 2-140); BAHAWALPUR STAGS 274 in 96.1 overs (Bilal Khilji 85 not out, Adeel Basit 64, Moinuddin 38; Kashif Bhatti 7-85) and 262-8 in 127 overs (Faisal Mubashir 104 not out, Adeel Basit 47; Kashif Bhatti 4-71).

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014