KARACHI: On a remarkable opening day of fourth-round fixture in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship at the UBL Sports Complex bowlers made life hazardous for the batsmen as no less than 21 wickets stumbled.

With the pitch aiding seam bowling, Karachi Whites skipper Shahzaib Hasan won a decisive toss that led to defending champions SNGPL folding up for 128 in 41.5 overs after being 85-4 at lunch, as the last six wickets fell in 77 minutes after the interval.

Test batsman Iftikhar Ahmed made his presence felt with an 88-ball knock of 48, featuring nine boundaries, before being ninth out when in-form Tabish Khan had him caught behind on his way to yet another five-for this season.

Tabish picked up 5-23 in 13.5 overs while left-armer Ghulam Mudassar returned from the Zimbabwe tour with the Pakistan ‘A’ to grab 4-59 in 18 overs.

Karachi Whites were making decent progress thanks to the belligerence of Shahzaib as the discarded Pakistan World Twenty20 winner in 2009 bludgeoned 61 from just 38 balls with 13 fours and one memorable six when he carved seamer Azizullah over the cover boundary.

But Karachi Whites slumped from 90-2 to 118 all out as the last seven wickets yielded only 17 runs with Azizullah claiming 5-42 in 8.2 overs and Bilawal Bhatti 3-19 in six.

Batting again, SNGPL lost captain Mohammad Hafeez to Tabish for the second time in the day’s play. The Pakistan reject, who made only five in the morning, was bowled for eight before his team reached 29-1 to lead by 39 runs.

The struggling Karachi Blues made partial recovery against SSGC to collect 206 all out just before stumps after Shoaib Malik opted to bowl first at the National Stadium. Left-arm seamer Zia-ul-Haq took 4-48 with Malik and Aamir Yamin taking two each.

After losing four quick wickets for 32 runs, Karachi Blues regrouped through wicket-keeper Owais Ahmed Rehmani who contributed 68 from 183 balls with eight boundaries after coming at 73-5.

In the day-night fixture at the Gaddafi Stadium, Fata were bowled out for 192 on the stroke of dinner break after they were put into bat NBP skipper Nasir Jamshed.

Barring opener Mohammad Naeem (67 off 97 balls, 12 fours) and Khushdil Shah (44 off 81, five boundaries), it was an abject batting show from the carefree Fata batsmen as seamers Mohammad Irfan (3-51 in 16 overs) and Altaf Ahmed (3-61 in 10.5) caused most of the damage.

Lahore Blues made excellent use of winning the toss when they restricted HBL to a modest 170 all out in their first innings at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad with their pace trio of Bilawal Iqbal, Mohammad Aftab and Shahid Nawaz equally sharing nine wickets between.

PIA endured another bleak day when Rawalpindi recovered from 91-7 to post a respectable 198 after being sent in to bat at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi. Taimur Khan came to the rescue with a 127-ball innings of 90 that contained 10 boundaries.

PIA then suffered familiar bating calamity as they crashed to 55-4 at close of play.

Shahid Yousuf was day’s solitary century-maker as his made 105 off 138 balls (13 fours and one six) to help Islamabad core 264-8 after deciding to bat first against UBL at the Diamond Club Ground in the federal capital.

Despite opener Sardar Hasan Raza scoring 93 KRL struggled to 204-5 after Lahore Whites elected to field first at the LCCA Ground in Lahore.

Peshawar made Wapda toil hard for wickets as the regional outfit batted throughout the day to pile up 252-8 after the visitors chose to bowl first at the Arbab Niaz Stadium.

Close of play scores on Saturday (day one of four):

Fourth round:

Pool ‘A’:

At National Stadium, Karachi: KARACHI BLUES 206 in 84.2 overs (Owais Ahmed Rehmani 68, Khalid Latif 32, Mohammad Sami 29, Fazal Subhan 27; Zia-ul-Haq 4-33, Shoaib Malik 2-31, Ahmed Iqbal 2-32, Aamir Yamin 2-48) vs SSGC.

At Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad: HBL 170 in 63 overs (Jamal Anwar 65 not out, Fakhar Zaman 33, Umar Gul 33; Shahid Nawaz 3-38, Mohammad Aftab 3-43, Bilawal Iqbal 3-48); LAHORE BLUES 31-1 in 16 overs (Umar Gul 1-4).

At Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad: ISLAMABAD 264-8 in 81 overs (Shahid Yousuf 105, Mohammad Naqqash 35 not out, Sarmad Bhatti 33, Raheel Majeed 23, Mohammad Naeem 21; Mir Hamza 3-48, Hammad Azam 2-28, Sameen Gul 2-31) vs UBL.

At Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar: PESHAWAR 252-6 in 86 overs (Israrullah 59, Akbar Badshah 56, Sahibzada Farhan 38, Ashfaq Ahmed 35; Khalid Usman 3-48) vs WAPDA.

Pool ‘B’:

At UBL Sports Complex, Karachi: SNGPL 128 in 41.5 overs (Iftikhar Ahmed 48; Tabish Khan 5-23, Ghulam Mudassar 4-59) and 29-1 in 9 overs; KARACHI WHITES 118 in 23.2 overs (Shahzaib Hasan 61, Behram Khan 25; Azizullah 5-42, Bilawal Bhatti 3-19).

At: LCCA Ground, Lahore: KRL 204-5 in 80 overs (Sardar Hussain 93, Shoaib Ahmed 38, Abdul Rehman Muzammil 31 not out; Umaid Asif 3-51) vs LAHORE WHITES.

At Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore (day-night fixture, dinner break): FATA 192 in 53.5 overs (Mohammad Naeem 67, Khushdil Shah 44; Mohammad Irfan 3-51, Altaf Ahmed 3-61, Atif Jabbar 2-55) vs NBP.

At Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi: RAWALPINDI 198 in 58 overs (Taimur Khan 90, Sarmad Hameed 29, Yasir Hameed 28; Salman Saeed 3-43, Aizaz Cheema 3-55, Anwar Ali 3-56); PIA 55-4 in 20 overs (Shaharyar Ghani 24 not out; Sohail Tanvir 2-4, Ataullah 2-15).

Published in Dawn October 23rd, 2016