KARACHI: The introduction of Australian brand Kookaburra balls in domestic cricket made no impact in terms of outright conclusions in any of the round one four-day fixtures of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy as the bat overwhelmingly prevailed with no less than eight batsmen posting centuries, including two unbeaten double tons, across the three venues.

The same story was also replicated in the three Second XI matches where, at least, the bowlers were on song — notably former Test slow left-armer Zulfiqar Babar who bagged 10 wickets for Southern Punjab against Central Punjab.

The pitch aspect also played a big hand as far as the opening first-class matches were concerned, particularly at the UBL Sports Complex in Karachi and Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium. The clash between Sindh and Balochistan was ridiculously boring, to say the least, as both provinces collectively scored 828 runs for the loss of just 14 wickets with a dismal run-rate to boot. The Punjab derby saw first-innings both sides posting totals of more than 460 while 21 wickets went down.

And if there was real entertainment in the early action it came at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium as the Abbottabad encounter was very much dominated by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who forced Northern to follow on. But the visitors went home with their reputation intact with a commanding batting show in the second innings.

As the attention gradually starts shifting to Pakistan’s upcoming ODI and T20 series against Sri Lanka with Misbah-ul-Haq — their new head coach-cum-chief selector — assembling 20 probables for a short preparatory camp in Lahore, the spotlight falls on the almost-forgotten Bugti Stadium as the Quetta venue prepares to stage its first of four major fixtures after a yawning gap of 11 years.

From Saturday onwards, Balochistan play hosts to Southern Punjab with the hope that the track remains kind to the bowlers, a likely scenario given the location of the ground in the hills. Both skippers — Shan Masood of Southern Punjab and Balochistan’s Imran Farhat, who has taken over the captaincy with Haris Sohail away on national duty — expressed optimism that a fair number of fans would turn up to watch the stars in action after so many years.

Out-of-favour Pakistan opener Sami Aslam will be eying to continue his brilliant start in the season as he bids for a spot in the Test squad for the Australia tour. The left-hander, who is representing Southern Punjab, plundered his best first-class score of 243 and 50 against Central Punjab without being dismissed in either innings.

Test leggie Yasir Shah toiled for wickets against Sindh but the unresponsive pitch and butter-fingered fielding fetched him just three wickets but the Bugti Stadium could change his luck.

Asad Shafiq, leading Sindh in the forced absence of Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed who alongside Abid Ali (scorer of career-best 249 not out in the opener) are both away, anticipated the change of playing of surface at the UBL Sports Complex would lead to an equal contest between bat and ball.

“Compared to the pitch in the first game, this one has decent grass by the look of it. Let’s hope it has enough carry for the bowlers to make impact,” the Test batsman said during the pre-match media briefing at the National Stadium on Friday afternoon. “The lack of pace [in the pitch] was indeed frustrating for both teams in the first game, and as the match progressed it got slower to the extent the run-rate suffered.

“The incentive of [securing] bonus points in the first 110 overs in the first innings is a great addition that surely force all teams to play with positive intent. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa played against Northern with exactly that mindset and that’s why they are top of the standings. I’m told the Abbottabad playing surface had sufficient pace which led to fast scoring.”

Sahibzada Farhan, the stand-in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa team leader after Mohammad Rizwan was called up for the training camp, maintained his side would take on Sindh in the same way as against Northern.

“Although Rizwan, Fakhar [Zaman], Iftikhar [Ahmed] and Usman Shinwari are all unavailable because of the Pakistan camp, we have got significant depth in our squad to challenge Sindh,” Farhan told reporters on Friday.

After their rearguard display against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern take on the Azhar Ali-led Central Punjab — missing the services of five first-choice players including captain Babar Azam and his deputy Ahmed Shehzad — at Faisalabad’s Iqbal Stadium despite known the fact that they are deprived of skipper Imad Wasim and Mohammad Nawaz with the leadership duties falling up Umar Amin’s shoulders.

Second-round schedule (Sept 21-24):

Sindh vs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (UBL Sports Complex, Karachi); Balochistan vs Southern Punjab (Bugti Stadium, Quetta); Central Punjab vs Northern (Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad).

Current standings

(Tabulated under played, won, lost, drawn, points):

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1 0 0 1 13

Southern Punjab 1 0 0 1 11

Central Punjab 1 0 0 1 11

Sindh 1 0 0 1 9

Northern 1 0 0 1 8

Balochistan 1 0 0 1 7

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2019