KARACHI: Discarded Pakistan all-rounder Hammad Azam couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to showcase his true value as United Bank Limited (UBL) took command of their Quad-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship fixture against Karachi Whites here on Wednesday.

The stand-in skipper struck a career-best 115 as UBL amassed 392-7 in response to the regional side’s modest first-inning tally of 208 o at the halfway point of the four-day Group ‘B’ fixture at the UBL Sports Complex.

The 26-year-old Hammad, who has appeared in just 11 One-day Internationals and five Twenty20 Internationals in a stop-start Pakistan career, surpassed an unbeaten 106 — the highest of his previous three first-class centuries — while also going past 3,000 runs in his 75th appearance.

Having already gone into the lead, UBL prospered further as Hammad, who adorned his 198-ball knock with 11 boundaries and three sixes, and Sohail Khan joined forces to share an unbroken partnership of 135 in only 125 minutes.

Resuming at 107-3, UBL lost the left-handed trio of Saad Ali (32), Mohammad Nawaz (10) and opener Umar Siddique before Gulraiz Sadaf helped his captain put on 60 for the seventh wicket.

Umar Siddique batted for 341 minutes for his 74 from 215 balls while hitting eight boundaries.

Sohail followed up his six-wicket haul on Tuesday’s opening day of the championship by smashing fours sixes and two fours in his 100-ball effort of 55 as the bankers built a commanding of 184 runs.

Ex-Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Sami picked up three wickets for 76 runs.

Opener Rizwan Hussain slammed an undefeated 113 (133 balls, 20 fours) to help Lahore Whites put themselves in complete control against PTV at the LCCA Ground.

After bowling out PTV for 161, with paceman Waqas Ahmed taking 5-54, Lahore Whites not only secured a first-innings lead of 83 but extended it further to 264 by closing the day a 181-3 in their second innings.

Pakistan limited-overs star opener Fakhar Zaman spanked 111 from just 104 balls while dominating a stand of 157 as HBL posted 171-2 in the second innings after taking a lead of 60 on the first by dismissing Fata for 178 at the Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot.

KRL were in deep shock after Rawalpindi had tottering at 8-3 in pursuit of a relatively achievable target of 184 at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.

Shahenshah Afridi, who until last week was leading Fata in the PCB Under-19 National Cricket Championship, marked his first-class debut with remarkable figures of 8-39 in 15 overs to help KRL bowl out Rawalpindi for 139 in the second innings.

Earlier, KRL crashed from 63-0 to 131 all out to give the regional side a 43run lead on the first innings.

Holders Wapda took a 99-run lead by dismissing Lahore Blues for 198 in the Group ‘A’ game at the Gaddafi Stadium before advancing to 41-1 in the second innings.

Former Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal scored an 87-ball 47 (six fours) to enable Faisalabad post 361 before NBP responded emphatically by posting 171-1 at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.

SNGPL were in bother at 131-5 after taking a slim two-run lead on the first innings against Peshawar at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium.

SSGC were well-placed at 51-0 after Islamabad mustered 189 all out in reply to the departmental outfit’s 310 at the Diamond Club Ground in the federal capital.

Close of play scores on Wednesday (day two of four):

Group ‘A’:

At Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad: FAISALABAD 361 in 117.2 overs (Asif Ali 101, Abdul Samad 59, Saeed Ajmal 47, Hasan Mahmood 40; Raza Hasan 4-112, Qaiser Abbas 3-35, Hazrat Shah 3-104); NBP 171-1 in 60 overs (Hamza Paracha 73 not out, Ali Asad 46 not out, Ahsan Ali 41).

At Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore: WAPDA 297 in 88.4 overs (Aamir Sajjad 106 not out, Khalid Usman 45, Salman Butt 38, Kamran Akmal 34, Khushdil Shah 30; Bilawal Iqbal 3-51, Aizaz Cheema 2-27, Saif-ur-Rehman 2-55) and 41-1 in 15 overs; LAHORE BLUES 198 in 69.4 overs (Raza Ali Dar 72, Qaiser Ashraf 52 not out, Waqas Saleem 26; Hasnain Shah 4-59, Waqas Maqsood 2-25, Mohammad Irfan 2-41).

At Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad: SSGC 310 in 89.3 overs (Asif Zakir 89, Zain Abbas 44, Shoaib Malik 29, Umar Amin 28, Aamir Yamin 27 not out; Ali Imran Pasha 3-62, Shehzad Azam Rana 3-70, Hamza Nadeem 2-63) and 51-0 in 13 overs (Umar Amin 35 not out); ISLAMABAD 189 in 67.2 overs (Fahad Iqbal 30, Imad Wasim 26, Ali Sarfraz 25; Zia-ul-Haq 4-46, Kashif Bhatti 2-24, Mohammad Irfan Jr 2-30).

At Abbottabad Cricket Stadium, Abbottabad: SNGPL 207 in 60 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 67, Mohammad Hafeez 36, Imran Butt 27; Mohammad Imran Khan 3-44, Shahzaib Ahmed Khan 2-19, Nasir Ahmed 2-47, Taj Wali 2-61) and 131-5 in 28 overs (Imran Butt 51 not out; Nasir Ahmed 2-24, Taj Wali 2-41); PESHAWAR 203 in 59.1 overs (Gohar Ali 66, Sahibzada Farhan 50; Samiullah Khan Niazi 4-50, Shadab Khan 3-23).

Group ‘B’:

At UBL Sports Complex, Karachi: KARACHI WHITES 208 in 51.3 overs (Mohammad Hasan 67, Faisal Iqbal 52, Azam Hussain 25 not out; Sohail Khan 6-59, Mohammad Nawaz 2-29); UBL 392-7 in 121 overs (Hammad Azam 115 not out, Umar Siddique 74, Sohail Khan 55 not out, Umar Akmal 47, Saad Ali 32, Gulraiz Sadaf 26; Mohammad Sami 3-76, Adeel Malik 2-89).

At LCCA Ground, Lahore: LAHORE WHITES 244 in 73.2 overs (Mohammad Waqas 46, Mohammad Irfan 40, Rizwan Hussain 39, Salman Fayyaz 35, Umaid Asif 33; Raheel Majeed 3-23, Tabish Khan 3-56) and 181-3 in 45 overs (Rizwan Hussain 113 not out, Anas Mahmood 31); PTV 161 in 54.2 overs (Saud Shakeel 62, Waleed Malik 29; Waqas Ahmed 5-54, Mohammad Irfan 3-26, Umaid Asif 2-38).

At Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot: HBL 238 in 70.4 overs (Ahmed Shehzad 73, Imam-ul-Haq 41, Rameez Aziz 35; Sohail Akhtar 5-45) and 171-2 in 41 overs (Fakhar Zaman 111, Imam-ul-Haq 55 not out; Asif Afridi 2-29); FATA 178 in 55.1 overs (Mohammad Naeem 96, Asif Ali 36, Asif Afridi 30; Fahim Ashraf 3-38, Junaid Khan 3-51, Umar Gul 2-35).

At Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi: RAWALPINDI 174 in 70.3 overs (Umair Masood 53, Nazar Hussain 28, Sarmad Hameed 26; Yasir Ali 6-50, Sadaf Hussain 3-48) and 139 in 46 overs (Sarmad Hameed 58, Nazar Hussain 29, Shaharyar Ghani 28; Shahenshah Afridi 8-39); KRL 131 in 45.2 overs (Hasan Sardar 38; Nazar Hussain 4-42, Ataullah 3-35) and 8-3 in 3.4 overs (Ataullah 2-3).

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2017