KARACHI: Habib Bank Limited (HBL) celebrated their first victory in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Champ­ionship when they eased past Islamabad by five wickets on the penultimate day of the second-round fixture in Islamabad on Sunday.

But the Pool ‘A’ fixture at the Diamond Club Ground was dominated by an altercation involving the temperamental Islamabad player Umar Kiyani and several HBL fielders on Saturday’s second day of play.

Umpires Tahir Shah and Khalid Mahmood reported the highly-deplorable incident to match referee Mohammad Javed after Kiyani, who is son of an influential landlord of Islamabad, put up a disgusting show of tantrum while batting. Stand-in HBL skipper Abdur Rehman was so perturbed by the episode that he wanted to take his players off the field before being persuaded to continue playing.

The offence, which comes under the Level 4 charge in the players’ code of conduct, could see Kiyani being banned for a period ranging from six months to a year if the PCB judicial committee endorses the official report.

HBL’s success earned them six points since Islamabad took lead on the first innings.

Wapda held edge over Karachi Blues after a fine century from Ayaz Tasawwar guided the departmental outfit to a position of strength here at the National Stadium.

After taking the last four wickets for the addition of only seven runs in 17 balls to bowl out the regional side for 192 to obtain a commanding lead of 150, Wapda skipper Salman Butt opted against enforcing the follow on.

But Salman himself departed cheaply for the second time in the match when he was caught in the covers for seven as Wapda slid to 33-4 before the left-handed Ayaz arrived to contribute a career-best 113 off 160 balls with 11 fours.

It was just Ayaz to hog the limelight with only the second first-class century of his career as Karachi paceman Adeel Malik recorded a personal bag of 7-55.

Needing 374, Karachi Blues reached 46-1 at stumps with Khurram Manzoor already striking six boundaries in his 35.

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) were forced to follow on after totalling 318 in response to Karachi Whites’ mammoth tally of 628-5 declared at the NBP Sports Complex.

Usman Salahuddin, one of several new signings in the NBP ranks, hit a defiant 113 with his unbeaten 273-ball knock featuring 16 boundaries.

Fast bowler Tabish Khan extended his excellent start to the season by capturing his third five-for on the trot by capturing five wickets for 63 runs in 24.2 overs.

PIA’s return to first-class arena has been huge disappointing as they were on verge of second straight loss after plummeting to 115-4 while chasing 415 against Lahore Whites at the LCCA Ground in Lahore.

Acting skipper Fahad Iqbal remains PIA’s last hope of avoiding another humiliation by making 61 by close of play. But older sibling and former Pakistan right-hander Faisal Iqbal scored just eight after being dismissed for a three-ball duck.

Earlier, Pakistan limited-overs batsman Umar Akmal followed up his first-innings effort of 74 by blasting 101 from 99 balls with the aid of 13 fours and one six as Lahore Whites made 224 in the second innings.

SSGC secured a lead of 129 on the first innings against Peshawar at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar when they amassed 462 in reply to Peshawar’s 333.

KRL held an overall lead of 248 after they progressed to 194-5 in their second innings against Fata at the Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot.

Despite Waqas Saleem making 106, Lahore Blues got only 277 in reply to UBL’s 448 at the Gaddafi Stadium. Batting again, Lahore Blues made 33-1.

In the day-night fixture at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi, holders SNGPL bounced back to put themselves in sight of victory against Rawalpindi. Needing 354, SNGPL were 184-1.

Close of play scores and result on Sunday (day three of four):

Second round:

Pool ‘A’:

At National Stadium, Karachi: WAPDA 342 in 101.5 overs (Mohammad Saad 106, Kamran Akmal 77, Aamir Sajjad 45; Abdul Ameer 6-79, Adeel Malik 2-75) and 228 in 61 overs (Ayaz Tasawwar 113, Mohammad Saad 27; Adeel Mali 7-55); KARACHI BLUES 192 in 67.1 overs (Mohammad Waqas Sr 43, Fazal Subhan 35, Khalid Latif 35, Mohammad Waqas 20; Waqas Maqsood 4-45, Khalid Usman 3-36, Naseer Akram 2-22) and 47-1 in 11 overs (Khurram Manzoor 35 not out).

At Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore: UBL 448 in 123.3 overs (Umar Siddique 185, Sharjeel Khan 96, Saeed bin Nasir 55, Rumman Raees Khan 34; Agha Salman 3-78, Waqas Ahmed 3-120); LAHORE BLUES -277 in 107 overs (Waqas Saleem 106, Asim Ali Nasir 48, Raza Ali Dar 33; Rumman Raees Khan 4-42, Zohaib Shera 4-78) and 33-1 in 12 overs.

At Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad: HBL beat Islamabad by five wickets.

ISLAMABAD 180 in 54.1 overs (Abid Ali 46, Shahid Yousuf 39, Ali Sarfraz 33; Abdur Rehman 3-56, Amad Butt 2-23, Yamin Ahmadzai 2-25, Usman Khan Shinwari 2-44) and 145 in 30.5 overs (Umar Kiyani 49, Shehzad Azam Rana 22 not out, Ali Sarfraz 20; Yamin Ahmadzai 3-28, Amad Butt 3-42, Usman Khan Shinwari 3-61); HBL 168 in 54 overs (Amad Butt 42, Imam-ul-Haq 40, Ramiz Aziz 23, Abdur Rehman 21; Shehzad Azam Rana 7-49, Zohaib Ahmed 2-39) and 160-5 in 41.3 overs (Imam-ul-Haq 57, Ramiz Aziz 43; Shehzad Azam Rana 2-51).

At Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar: PESHAWAR 333 in 99.1 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 97, Mehran Ibrahim 77, Ashfaq Ahmed 56, Asif Fawad 37, Akbar Badshah 22; Zafar Gohar 3-60, Mohammad Irfan 2-50, Aamir Yamin 2-80) and 46-0 in 21 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 27 not out); SSGC 462 in 126.2 overs (Awais Zia 158, Ali Asad 91, Maqbool Ahmed 56, Adil Amin 51, Mohammad Irfan 22; Asif Fawad 6-106).

Pool ‘B:

At NBP Sports Complex, Karachi: KARACHI WHITES 628-5 declared in 159.3 overs (Hamza Ghanchi 300 not out, Behram Khan 155, Faraz Ali 68, Babar Hussain Agha 57; Altaf Ahmed 2-67, Qaiser Abbas 2-102); NBP 318 in 90.2 overs (Usman Salahuddin 113 not out, Rameez Raja 77, Qaiser Abbas 45, Nasir Jamshed 40; Tabish Khan 5-63, Azam Hussain 2-68, Raza-ul-Hasan 2-104) and 6-0 in 3 overs.

At LCCA Ground, Lahore: LAHORE WHITES 365 in 96.1 overs (Umar Akmal 74, Umaid Asif 57, Mohammad Waqas 46, Anas Mahmood 45, Rameez Alam 44, Farhan Khan 22, Adnan Rasool 21; Tahir Khan 6-101, Rafay Safdar 2-82) and 224 in 55.3 overs (Umar Akmal 101, Mohammad Waheed 22; Salman Saeed 3-30, Rafay Safdar 3-36, Najaf Shah 2-19); PIA 175 in 65.5 overs (Fahad Iqbal 46, Tahir Khan 33, Shoaib Khan 26, Obaidullah 23; Adnan Rasool 4-53, Qaiser Ashraf 3-61) and 115-4 in 34 overs (Fahad Iqbal 61 not out, Obaidullah 27; Umaid Asif 2-17).

At Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot: KRL 352 in 106.2 overs (Saeed Anwar Jr 157, Abdul Rehman Muzammil 33, Zulfiqar Jan 30, Yasir Ali 24, Mohammad Abbas 20 not out; Asif Afridi 5-102, Asif Ali 3-54) and 196-5 in 65 overs (Luqman Butt 47, Sardar Hasan Raza 38, Saeed Anwar Jr 33, Adnan Mahmood 30; Asif Afridi 4-63); FATA 298 in 81.3 overs (Fawad Khan 95, Khushdil Shah 75, Mohammad Sarwar 39, Mohammad Naeem 24, Asif Afridi 20; Mohammad Abbas 5-79, Nayyar Abbas 4-81).

At Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi (day-night fixture, dinner break scores): RAWALPINDI 173 in 66.4 overs (Umar Waheed 46, Zeeshan Malik 29; Asad Ali 5-40) and 317 in 80.4 overs (Yasir Hameed 81, Talha Qureshi 59, Umar Waheed 58; Samiullah Khan Niazi 3-68, Imran Khalid 3-68, Abubakar Khan 2-8, Asad Ali 2-49); SNGPL 137 in 49.2 overs (Imran Khalid 46 not out, Taufiq Umar 30, Abubakar Khan 23; Abid Hasan 5-40, Ataullah 4-51) and 184-1 in 63 overs (Imran Butt 82 not out, Taufiq Umar 71 not out).

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2016