KARACHI, Jan 19: Contrasting centuries by Ageel Anjum and Faisal Iqbal enabled Sindh overwhelmingly dominate the opening day's action in the Faysal Bank Pentangular Cup fixture against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the National Stadium here on Thursday.
Ageel struck a patient 126 and Faisal hit an enterprising 100 off 146 balls as Sindh fully capitalised on a fine batting track to post 316-3 in their first innings after skipper Mohammad Sami won the toss.
After losing openers Khurram Manzoor and Shahzaib Hasan rather cheaply, Sindh not only overcame the uncertain start but put themselves firmly in control with Ageel and Faisal dominating the post-lunch period of play with scoring chanceless centuries.
Faisal looked in excellent touch as he stroked 12 boundaries, but shortly after bringing up his fourth century ofthe season the discarded Test right-hander departed when he halfchecked a drive but only succeeded in giving a catch to substitute fielder Raja Nadeem at short cover.
The third-wicket partnership between Faisal and Ageel yielded 184 in 192 minutes.
Faisal's wicket provided left-arm paceman Waqar Ahmed his second of the innings since he had earlier in the forced Khurram Manzoor (8) into playing a false stroke.
Slow left-armer Khalid Usman scalped the normally big-hitting Shahzaib Hasan for a 61-ball 22 when the opener was caughtby Shoaib Khan close in.
Ageel reached his third hundred this season when cut Khalid to the point boundary to register his 13th four off 179 balls in almost 270 minutes. By stumps he had added three more boundaries as he and fellow left-hander Fawad Alam scored freely to put on 80 for the ongoing fourthwicket partnership.
Fawad, another of the Pakistan rejects, scored 38 with his newly adopted crab-like batting stance which is almost reminiscent to that of the great West Indies left-handed batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Leg-spinner Yasir Shah, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa skipper, who recently claimed eight wickets in the three-day tour match against England in Dubai, toiled through 20 wicketless overs and hardly got a single delivery to turn, which indeed was surprising to the onlookers.
Scoreboard
SINDH (1st Innings): Khurram Manzoor c Zulfiqar b Waqar 8 Shahzaib Hasan c Shoaib b Khalid 22 Aqeel Anjum not out 126 Faisal Iqbal c Raja Nadeem b Waqar 100 Fawad Alam not out 38
EXTRAS (B-7, LB-2, W-1, NB-12) .............22 TOTAL (for three wkts, 87 overs) ..........316 FALL OF WKTS: 1-22, 2-42, 3-226. TO BAT: Fahad Iqbal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Sami, Anwar Ali, Danish Kaneria, Tabish Khan. BOWLING (to-date): Waqar Ahmed 18-3-58-2; Imran Khan 12-0-37-0 (5nb); Khalid Usman 19-2-70-1; Ahmed Jamal 15-0-65-0 (7nb, 1w); Yasir Shah 20-1-66-0; Yasir Hameed 3-0-11-0.
KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA: Mohammad Fayyaz, Yasir Hameed, Adnan Raees, Shoaib Khan, Akbar Badshah, Zulfiqar Jan, Yasir Shah, Khalid Usman, Ahmed Jamal, Waqar Ahmed, Imran Khan. UMPIRES: Zameer Haider and Shozab Raza. MATCH REFEREE: Naeem Ahmed. OFFICIAL SCORER: Syed Imran Ali.
