KARACHI: Central Punjab put themselves in sight of an emphatic first victory of the first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy after Northern suffered an inexplicable batting collapse at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad on Sunday.

Elsewhere Fawad Alam, the now forgotten Pakistan left-hander, added another century to his impressive CV while putting Sindh in a healthy position against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa here at the UBL Sports Complex, while Balochistan had Southern Punjab battling for survival at Quetta’s Bugti Stadium.

With the second-round matches reaching the halfway stage, Northern are praying for a sensational turnaround to prevent Central Punjab becoming the first provincial side to seal an outright result in its favour after all three round one games were drawn.

Central Punjab skipper Azhar Ali will surely condemn Northern to their second follow on in succession when play on the third day resumes after visitors were shot out inside 61 overs on Sunday for mere 114 in response to Central Punjab’s huge first-innings tally of 433.

Resuming at 369-5, Central Punjab crossed the 400 mark largely thanks to Azhar, who extended his overnight score from 110 to 155 before the Test star was bowled by ex-international Raza Hasan. Azhar’s 262-ball innings during a stay of 433 minutes was laced with 13 boundaries.

Raza’s fellow left-arm spinner Nauman Ali grabbed four wickets for 104 runs in 29 overs. But his lionhearted bowling effort was not matched by the Northern batsmen who crumbled against the spin-cum-pace duo of Zafar Gohar (4-36 in 19 overs) and Ehsan Adil (3-15 in nine).

Raza was top-scorer with an 84-ball 20, while former Pakistan wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal followed up his swashbuckling knock of 157 on Saturday with four dismissals.

Southern Punjab recovered from a shaky 51-3 to close at 161-3 after hosts Balochistan declared their first innings at 500-9 with all-rounder Amad Butt making 54.

Slow left-armer Mohammad Irfan added three more wickets — after Balochistan began the day at 347-4 — to finish with five for 131 from 51 overs.

Southern Punjab lost their skipper Shan Masood (6) in the third over as the Test left-hander was caught by Abubakar Khan off ex-Pakistan seamer Umar Gul. The visitors then suffered a body blow as the in-firm Sami Aslam was out for the first time after his grand double of 243 and 50 against Central Punjab in Lahore last week.

The left-handed opener offered Abubakar his second catch of the innings after scoring 20 with leg-spinner Yasir Shah the successful bowler. Sohaib Maqsood came and went quickly when the discarded international was run out for 10.

However, Umar Siddique (67 off 110 balls, nine fours and one six) and fellow left-hander Imran Rafiq (56 off 83, 11 boundaries) stopped the rot with an unfinished partnership of 110 in 105 minutes.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lost two early wickets in the heat of Karachi but recovered to collect 97-2 in response to Sindh’s 476-9 declared. Adil Amin drew inspiration from a career-best bowling performance to spearhead a spirited fightback from the visiting side.

The 28-year-old right-hander from Peshawar came to the crease skipper Sahibzada Farhan (3) and his left-handed opening partner Israrullah (2) had both gone with just five runs on the board. Adil outscored Ashfaq Ahmed (28 off 75 balls) during their unbroken stand of 92 by contributing a 98-ball 63 (nine fours and one six).

Earlier, Fawad helped himself to his 31st first-class hundred in rem­arkable circumstances. Com­i­ng in at No.8 after Sohail Khan and Mohammad Hasan were both promoted to up the ante, the left-hander — who turns 34 on Oct 8 — scored 89 in the company of No.11 Mir Hamza (15 off 93 balls) as the duo shared a stand of 108 in 126 minutes without being separated.

Fawad, who had played in three Tests, 38 ODIs and 24 T20 Internationals, reached the coveted landmark with a six off young slow left-armer Umar Khan, one of the stars of the 2019 Pakistan Super League to end up on exactly 100 when Sindh skipper Asad Shafiq applied the closure on the stroke of tea. Fawad’s 138-ball knock in 154 minutes also included eight boundaries.

Earlier, Asad could add just 13 runs to Saturday’s score of 68 before falling to fast bowler Sameen Gul for a 154-ball 81 (seven fours and one six), with his overnight partnership with Omair Bin Yousuf worth 145.

Omair, who was batting on 133 at stumps on day one, surpassed his previous best first-class score of 163 and was finally dismissed by Adil for 174 (298 balls, 18 fours and three sixes) after a marathon stay of 470 minutes.

Adil, who also took the wickets of Saud Shakeel (25) and Kashif Bhatti (9), bettered his previous best analysis of 4-25 as the off-spinner ended up with 5-81 in 28 overs, while Sameen took 3-50 from 20 overs.

Meanwhile, the first outright result of the season came in the three-day Second XI fixture at the Dring Stadium in Bahawalpur where former Test slow left-armer Zulfiqar Babar bagged a second match bag of 10 wickets while inspiring Southern Punjab to a 101-run defeat of Balochistan.

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

Second round:

At UBL Sports Complex, Karachi: SINDH 476-9 declared in 148.5 overs (Omair Bin Yousuf 174, Fawad Alam 100 not out, Asad Shafiq 81, Khurram Manzoor 40, Saud Shakeel 25; Adil Amin 5-81, Sameen Gul 3-50); KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 97-2 in 31 overs (Adil Amin 63 not out, Ashfaq Ahmed 28 not out).

At Bugti Stadium, Quetta: BALOCHISTAN 500-9 declared in 130.5 overs (Azeem Ghumman 163, Imran Farhat 117, Imran Butt 66, Amad Butt 54, Bismillah Khan 32, Yasir Shah 31; Mohammad Irfan 5-131, Bilawal Bhatti 2-104); SOUTHERN PUNJAB 161-3 in 41 overs (Umar Siddique 67 not out, Imran Rafiq 56 not out, Sami Aslam 20).

At Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad: CENTRAL PUNJAB 433 in 107.5 overs (Kamran Akmal 157, Azhar Ali 155, Saad Nasim 31, Rizwan Hussain 30, Salman Butt 22; Nauman Ali 4-104, Musa Khan 3-78, Raza Hasan 2-94); NORTHERN 114 in 60.3 overs (Raza Hasan 20; Zafar Gohar 4-36, Ehsan Adil 3-15, Bilal Asif 2-13).

Second XI, second-round results (final day of three):

At NBP Sports Complex, Karachi: Match drawn.

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA 230 in 82.2 overs (Salman Afridi 53, Asif Afridi 38, Asad Afridi 37; Ashiq Ali 3-26, Hassaan Khan 3-95) and 203 in 66.3 overs (Aitzaz Habib Khan 71, Khushdil Shah 38; Adeel Malik 3-57); SINDH 138 in 40.4 overs (Saifullah Khan Bangash 36, Saad Khan 34; Khalid Usman 4-41) and 129-3 in 63 overs (Rameez Raja Jr 61 not out).

At Dring Stadium, Bahawalpur: Southern Punjab beat Balochistan by 101 runs.

SOUTHERN PUNJAB 218 in 78.2 overs (Mohammad Mohsin 46, Naved Yasin 33, Agha Salman 31; Akhtar Shah 3-39, Jalat Khan 3-61) and 101 in 42.3 overs (Jalat Khan 6-29); BALOCHISTAN 109 in 48.2 overs (Zulfiqar Babar 6-45) and 109 in 44.4 overs (Mohammad Irfan Jr 5-37, Zulfiqar Babar 4-45).

At Mirpur Cricket Stadium, Mirpur (AJK): Match drawn.

NORTHERN 299-5 in 83 overs (Shoaib Ahmed Minhas 106 not out, Sarmad Bhatti 67, Faizan Riaz 36; Mohammad Ali 3-72) and 90-4 in 31 overs (Jamal Anwar 32); CENTRAL PUNJAB 269-8 in 83 overs (Ali Zaryab 75, Bilawal Iqbal 64 not out; Salman Irshad 4-81).

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2019