KARACHI: Hosts Multan earned a slim five-run but very vital lead after reaching 278-5 against Abbottabad in their fourth-round fixture of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-II cricket tournament at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Resuming from their overnight score of 27-2, Multan recovered through solid contributions from Maqbool Ahmed (60), veteran skipper Saeed Anwar Jr (55) and Faizan Elahi (54).

Abbottabad then collected 39-2 in their second innings before stumps on the penultimate day of the three-fixture were drawn for the day.

Quetta need just three wickets to hand Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) a crushing defeat at the Dring Stadium in Bahawalpur.

Larkana secured an unlikely one-run lead by restricting Hyderabad to 277-9 at the National Sta­dium despite opener Azeem Ghumman making 123.

Dera Murad Jamali staged a belated comeback when they reached stumps at 124-0 after Sialkot totalled 227 to take a first-innings lead of 81 at the TMC Ground.

Close of play scores on Friday (day two of three):

Fourth round:

Pool ‘A’:

At Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan: ABBOTTABAD 272-9 in 83 overs (Khalilullah 117 not out, Nasir Khan 59, Sajjad Ali 28, Mohsin Rasheed 22; Saeed Anwar Jr 3-56, Zulfiqar Babar 3-98) and 39-2 in 13 overs; MULTAN 278-5 in 83 overs (Maqbool Ahmed 60 not out, Saeed Anwar Jr 55 not out, Waqar Hussain 54, Kashif Naveed 42; Faizan Elahi 2-32).

At Dring Stadium, Bahawalpur: AZAD JAMMU KASHMIR 107 in 36.5 overs (Babar Khaliq 27 not out, Naveed Malik 25; M. Shahzad Tareen 5-34, Shams-ul-Haq 3-9) 182-7 in 57.1 overs(Sardar Hasan Raza 75, Usman Maroof 49, Ikram Hussain 31; Shamsullah 2-43, Gohar Fayyaz 2-50); QUETTA 305 in 80.5 overs (Bismillah Khan 103, Shahbaz Khan 70, Rameez Raja 44 not out; Abdul Shakoor 5-103, Azhar Mahmood 2-52, Salman Irshad 2-88).

Pool ‘B’:

At National Stadium, Karachi: LARKANA 278-8 in 83 overs (Mohammad Urs 58 not out Mohsin Raza 52, Hamesh Kumar 37, Zafar Ali 36, Faraz Aziz 22; Babar Khan 3-37, Nauman Akbar 2-52, Nauman Ali 2-79) and 23-2 in 10 overs HYDERABAD 277-9 in 83 overs(Azeem Ghumman 123, Mohammad Suleman 59, Saad Khan 54, Shoaib Leghari 45, Lal Kumar 37 not out, Rizwan Ahmed 25; Ali Asghar 4-96).

At TMC Ground, Karachi: DERA MURAD JAMALI 146 in 49 overs (Shahbaz Ali 45, Najeebullah 31; Mansoor Amjad 3-39, Usama Mir 2-23, Ammad Butt 2-34, Abdul Rehman 2-39) and124-0 in 65 overs (Nasir Khan 69 not out, Abid Ali Mengal 51 not out); SIALKOT 227 in 61.5 overs (Nauman Anwar 57, Ali Raza 42, Jamil Aslam 38, Naeemuddin 32, Hamza Nazar 24; Rasool Bakhsh 4-91, Nasir Khan 3-23).­

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2018