KARACHI: An inspiring new-ball burst from Mohammad Makki backed up a captain’s knock from Ram Ravi as Karachi Whites staged a fine comeback against Karachi Blues to set up an intriguing finish to the PCB Under-19 National Cricket Championship final in Mirpur.

At stumps on the penultimate day of the four-day title-decider at the Mirpur Cricket Stadium, Karachi Blues were rocked by Makki’s triple strikes to find themselves struggling at 76-3 while chasing a fourth-innings target of 283.

Makki, who has excellent figures of 3-17 in eight overs so far, took the prized wickets of opener Waleed Khan and Haider Ali, both of whom had scored centuries in the first innings, to leave Imran Shah (37) and nightwatchman Kahaf Patel (5) battling it out when play ended for the day.

Earlier, Karachi Whites added another 232 to their Saturday’s tally of 119-1 before being all out for 351 in the second innings. The highlight being Ram’s century as the skipper struck 137 from only 151 balls, while hitting 13 fours and five sixes.

Ram joined left-hander Syed Amin shortly after opener Umair Yousuf was dismissed for 75 after adding only seven runs to his overnight score.

The third-wicket partnership of 126 between Amin, who made 70 off 152 balls (eight fours and one six), and Ram eventually allowed Karachi Whites to take control.

Leg-spinners Kahaf Patel and Ashar Qureshi shared eight wickets between them with the former claiming 5-89 in 21 overs and all-rounder Ashar grabbing 3-87 in 29.5 overs to take his final haul in this year’s championship to 59 victims in just eight matches.

Scoreboard

KARACHI WHITES (1st Innings) 341 (Jahanzaib Sultan 125, Mohammad Taha 104, Sufyan Khan 32, Zaryab Khan 23; Ashar Qureshi 4-114, Daniyal Naveed 3-80, Ali Umar 2-56).

KARACHI BLUES (1st Innings) 410-6 (Waleed Khan 168, Haider Ali 101, Obaisullah Khan 46 not out, Ashar Qureshi 43 not out, Taha Mahmood 22; Mohammad Makki 2-76, Arish Ali Khan 2-125).

KARACHI WHITES (2nd Innings, overnight 119-1):

Umair Yousuf lbw b Ali Umar 75
Zaryab Khan lbw b Daniyal 35
Syed Amin lbw b Kahaf 70
Ram Ravi c Daniyal b Ashar 137
Mohammad Taha c Daniyal b Kahaf 0
Jahanzaib Sultan c sub b Kahaf 14
Sufyan Khan lbw b Kahaf 4
Shahid Nisar lbw b Ashar 1
Arish Ali Khan b Kahaf 0
Mohammad Ali Khan lbw b Ashar 7
Mohammad Makki not out 0

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-2, W-2) 8

TOTAL (all out, 87.5 overs) 351

FALL OF WKTS: 1-82, 2-131, 3-257, 4-259, 5-281, 6-287, 7-306, 8-307, 9-351.

BOWLING: Ali Umar 20-1-77-1 (1w); Kahaf Patel 21-3-89-5 (1w); Ashar Qureshi 29.5-3-87-3; Daniyal Naveed 14-3-75-1; Obaisullah Khan 1.5-0-4-0; Taha Mahmood 1.1-0-13-0.

KARACHI BLUES (2nd Innings):

Waleed Khan lbw b Makki 21
Imran Shah not out 37
Taha Mahmood lbw b Makki 0
Haider Ali c Shahid b Makki 3
Kahaf Patel not out 5

EXTRAS (B-8, LB-1, W-1) 10

TOTAL (for three wkts, 22 overs) 76

FALL OF WKTS: 1-37, 2-37, 3-55.

BOWLING (to-date): Mohammad Ali Khan 7-1-39-0 (1w); Mohammad Makki 8-3-17-3; Arish Ali Khan 4-2-7-0; Syed Amin 3-1-4-0.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2017