KARACHI: Aamir Yamin and Zulfiqar Babar shared nine second-innings wickets between them as Multan completed a resounding 10-wicket rout of Karachi Blues in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-II Cricket Tournament final at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

The scheduled four-day fixture was all over before lunch on day three after Karachi Blues put up another inept batting performance while matching their first-innings total of 154, leaving the hosts the mere formality of scoring just three runs to regain first-class status.

Multan — who will return to the mainstream Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Cham­pionship after a lapse of four seasons having last appeared in the Gold League of coveted competition under the name of Multan Tigers — needed only a single ball to seal a deserved victory when Imran Rafiq hit Mohammad Asghar for a boundary.

Already hopelessly placed at 81-4 when stumps were drawn on Wednesday evening, Karachi Blues survived a further 22.2 overs before being all out with pace-bowling all-rounder Aamir grabbing three more wickets to add to his tally of two on day two before finishing with five for 32 in 17 overs for a match bag of eight for 65 in 32 overs.

Zulfiqar, the former Test slow left-armer, snared four wickets for 57 runs to add to his haul of 5-50 in the first innings.

He ended up with match figures of 9-107 in 43.4 overs over the two innings.

Barring wicket-keeper Saifullah Khan Bangash, it was an abject surrender on the part of remaining visiting batsmen. The overnight pair of Fahaddis Bukhari (26) and Hasan Mohsin (13) both were trapped in front of the stumps without adding a single run to their respective tally.

Saifullah was the top scorer with a 40-ball 32 which included four boundaries, while Asghar (12) and last man Mir Hamza (unbeaten 16) were only other batsmen to reach double figures on Thursday.

Abdul Rehman Muzammil was later declared man-of-the-final for his excellent innings of 113. Zulfiqar won the best bowler award for his 31 wickets in the tournament.

The best batsmen prize went to Hyderabad’s Saad Khan (450 runs), while Kamran Ghulam of Abbottabad clinched the best all-rounder award (337 runs, 22 wickets and six matches).

Multan skipper Saeed Anwar Jr received the winners’ trophy plus a purse of Rs500,000 on behalf of his team, while a dejected Karachi Blues captain Rameez Raja had to settle for the runners-up trophy and Rs250,000.

Scoreboard

KARACHI BLUES (1st Innings) 154 (Ashiq Ali 47, Mohammad Asghar 33, Fahaddis Bukhari 23; Zulfiqar Babar 5-50, Aamir Yamin 3-33).

MULTAN (1st Innings) 306 (Abdul Rehman Muzammil 113, Waqar Hussain 89, Saeed Anwar Jr 23, Mohammad Irfan 20; Ashiq Ali 4-96, Mohammad Asghar 4-115, Mohammad Umar 2-44).

KARACHI BLUES (2nd Innings, overnight 81-4):

Rameez Raja lbw b Aamir 7
Ammad Alam lbw b Irfan 11
Saud Shakeel lbw b Zulfiqar 20
Ramiz Aziz b Aamir 3
Fahaddis Bukhari lbw b Zulfiqar 26
Hasan Mohsin lbw b Aamir 13
Saifullah Khan Bangash lbw b Zulfiqar 32
Ashiq Ali c Ali b Aamir 8
Mohammad Asghar c Maqbool b Aamir 12
Mohammad Umar c Zain b Zulfiqar 4
Mir Hamza not out 16

EXTRAS (NB-2) 2

TOTAL (all out, 55.2 overs) 154

FALL OF WKTS: 1-11, 2-19, 3-22, 4-59, 5-81, 6-89, 7-103, 8-129, 9-135.

BOWLING: Mohammad Irfan 5-0-24-1; Aamir Yamin 17-5-32-5 (2nb); Zia-ul-Haq 7-1-25-0; Zulfiqar Babar 22.2-5-57-4; Saeed Anwar Jr 4-0-16-0.

MULTAN (2nd Innings):

Imran Rafiq not out 4
Waqar Hussain not out 0

EXTRAS 0

TOTAL (for no wkt, 0.1 over) 4

BOWLING: Mohammad Asghar 0.1-0-4-0.

RESULT: Multan won by 10 wickets.

UMPIRES: Akmal Hayat and Jamshed Iqbal.

MATCH REFEREE: Mohammad Wasim.

OFFICIAL SCORER: Mohammad Akbar.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Abdul Rehman Muzammil.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2018