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KARACHI, March 10: Wasim Akram continued his excellent form with the ball as PIA cantered to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Lahore Whites in the National One-day Cricket Championship tie at National Stadium here Sunday.
The champion left-arm speedster proved a handful for the inexperienced Lahore batsmen by claiming four for 18 in nine hostile overs.
Lahore Whites, who elected to bat first on pitch that promised a sackful of runs, were restricted to just 128 in 39.5 overs.
Only skipper Salman Butt and Salman Qadir were able to come to terms with the star-studded bowling attack, led by the irrepressible Wasim Akram.
Salman Butt, who led Pakistan in the recent Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, was last out for a 119-ball 41 — striking a solitary boundary — when off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq had him stumped by PIA captain Moin Khan.
Salman Qadir, son of former leg-spin legend Abdul Qadir, contributed an enterprising 39 at run-a-ball with the aid of six boundaries. The two Salmans were involved in a 59-run partnership for the seventh-wicket.
Earlier, Wasim, who took three wickets against Bahawalpur Friday, produced a lethal burst of three wickets for three runs as the Lahorites crashed to 47 for six. All his victims, wicket-keeper Imran Butt, Atif Malik and Khaqan Arsal, departed without troubling the scorer.
Fazle Akbar, the right-arm pacer, chipped in with three wickets as he gave away 31 runs in 10 overs.
PIA then lost Ghulam Ali for 28 but Shoaib Mohammad (43 off 67 balls, seven fours) and Yasir Hameed (40 off 40 balls, six fours) guided their team home with more than 28 overs to spare.
LAHORE WHITES:
Salman Butt st Moin b Saqlain 41
Imran Butt c Ghulam Ali b Wasim 0
Atif Malik lbw b Wasim 0
Khaqan Arsal lbw b Wasim 0
Rashid Riaz lbw b Fazle 2
Tariq Rasheed lbw b Fazle 10
Saqib Maqsood lbw b Fazle 3
Salman Qadir run out 39
Umer Javed run out 1
Usman Ali lbw b Wasim 2
Imran Ali not out 11
EXTRAS (LB-2, W-12, NB-5) 19
TOTAL (all out, 39.5 overs) 128
FALL OF WKTS: 1-10, 2-12, 3-12, 4-21, 5-36, 6-47, 7-106, 8-108, 9-115.
BOWLING: Wasim Akram 9-1-18-4 (2nb, 7w); Fazle Akbar 10-2-31-3 (1nb, 3w); Azhar Mahmood 6-1-10-0 (1w); Ghulam Ali 1-0-7-0 (1w); Saqlain Mushtaq 8.5-0-38-1 (2nb); Nadeem Khan 5-1-22-0.
PIA:
Ghulam Ali c Rashid b Usman 28
Shoaib Mohammad not out 43
Yasir Hameed not out 40
EXTRAS (B-5, W-10, NB-3) 18
TOTAL (for one wkt, 21.5 overs) 129
FALL OF WKT: 1-61.
DID NOT BAT: Wasim Akram, Asif Mujtaba, Sohail Jaffar, Azhar Mahmood, Moin Khan, Saqlain Mushtaq, Nadeem Khan, Fazle Akbar.
BOWLING: Usman Ali 7-0-58-1 (2nb, 7w); Umer Javed 7-0-30-0 (2w); Imran Ali 6-2-27-0 (1nb); Salman Qadir 1-0-1-0; Rashid Riaz 0.5-0-8-0.
RESULT: PIA won by nine wickets.
UMPIRES: Masroor Ali and Sadiq Mohammad.
MATCH REFEREE: Mahmood Rasheed.
Results of other Pool ‘A’ matches:
*Pakistan Customs beat Hyderabad by seven wickets at Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad
HYDERABAD 117 in 43.2 overs (Ayaz Taifi 33, Rizwan Ahmed 25; Salman Fazal 3-13, Tabish Nawab 3-31, Waqas Chughtai 2-17);
PAKISTAN CUSTOMS 118-3 in 27.5 overs (Shadab Kabir 52 not out).
*Karachi Whites beat Rest of Sindh by 38 runs at KCCA Stadium, Karachi
KARACHI WHITES 226 in 49.5 overs (Zeeshan Pervez 54, Fahadullah 43, Saqib Zia 42, Maisam Hasnain 29; Agha Tahir 3-46, Rizwan Qureshi 2-41, Khair Ali Shah 2-59);
REST OF SINDH 188 in 44.3 overs (Shahid Qambrani 81, Kamaluddin 41, Mujahid Solangi 29; Tahir Khan 3-31, Mohammad Hasnain 3-45, Arif Mahmood 2-31).
