KARACHI: ICC International panel umpire Ahsan Raza and Asif Yaqoob will officiate in the final of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship in Karachi next month.

According to the Super Eight schedule released by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday, the title-deciding match of the country’s premier first-class competition will be staged after the competition of three rounds with Karachi Whites being the solitary region in fray in the event that would be competed by as many as seven departmental outfits after last season’s qualifiers Lahore Blues were eliminated in the preliminary round.

Defending champions SNGPL meet Wapda in the first of three day-night Super Eight fixtures at the National Stadium from Saturday. Also on the same day, Karachi Whites open their Group-I campaign against SGGC at the UBL Sports Complex.

The opening-round Group-II action sees the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Sports Complex making debut at the first-class venue when it hosts the NBP-HBL clash. The other game this week will be at the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad where KRL will take on last season’s runners-up UBL.

Schedule:

Group-I: Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Karachi Whites.

Group-II: Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), United Bank Limited (UBL), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Habib Bank Limited (HBL).

Nov 19-22: Wapda vs SNGPL at National Stadium (day-night), Karachi (Umpires: Shozab Raza and Rashid Riaz, match referee: Musaddeq Rasool Khan, official scorer: Syed Imran Ali); SSGC vs Karachi Whites at UBL Sports Complex, Karachi (Umpires: Ahsan Raza and Ghaffar Kazmi, match referee: Mohammad Javed, official scorer: Ubaid Ahmed); NBP vs HBL at SBP Sports Complex, Karachi (Umpires: Riazuddin and Imtiaz Iqbal, match referee: Khalid Niazi, official scorer: Salman Siddiqui); KRL vs UBL at Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad (Umpires: Ahmed Shahab and Asif Yaqoob, match referee: Iqbal Sheikh, official scorer: Anjum Baig).

Nov 26-29: Wapda vs Karachi Whites at NBP Sports Complex, Karachi (Umpires: Ahsan Raza and Ahmed Shahab, match referee: Mohammad Javed, official scorer: Syed Imran Ali); SSGC vs SNGPL at SBP Sports Complex, Karachi (Umpires: Mohammad Sajid Afridi and Rashid Riaz, match referee: Nadeem Arshad, official scorer: Ubaid Ahmed), KRL vs HBL at National Stadium (day-night), Karachi (Umpires: Shozab Raza and Ghaffar Kazmi, match referee: Musaddeq Rasool Khan, official scorer: Tariq Noor), UBL vs NBP at UBL Sports Complex, Karachi (Umpires: Riazuddin and Asif Yaqoob, match referee: Khalid Niazi, official scorer: Salman Siddiqui).

Dec 3-6: SNGPL vs Karachi Whites at National Stadium (day-night), Karachi (Umpires: Ahmed Shahab and Mohammad Sajid Afridi, match referee: Nadeem Arshad, official scorer: Junaid Afzal); KRL vs NBP at UBL Sports Complex, Karachi (Umpires: Riazuddin and Ghaffar Kazmi, match referee: Iftikhar Ahmed, official scorer: Wasim Abbas); UBL vs HBL at NBP Sports Complex, Karachi (Umpires: Asif Yaqoob and Imtiaz Iqbal, match referee: Ishtiaq Ahmed, official scorer: Tariq Noor); Wapda vs SSGC at Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad (Umpires: Ahsan Raza and Rashid Riaz, match referee: Iqbal Sheikh, official scorer: Arif Majeed Arif).

Dec 10-14: Final — Group-I winners vs Group-II winners at National Stadium (day-night), Karachi (Umpires: Ahsan Raza and Asif Yaqoob, TV umpire: Ahmed Shahab, match referee: Ishtiaq Ahmed, official scorer: Syed Imran Ali, media scorer: to be announced).

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2016